Since reassuming the chief minister’s chair in June, Naidu has been vocally advocating population growth in the state, regularly urging families to have more children to sustain the demographic dividend and maintain the state’s competitive edge in industrial output and other growth indicators.
This article is NOT paywalled
But your support enables us to deliver impactful stories, credible interviews, insightful opinions and on-ground reportage.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief’s push for larger families is seen by some as an attempt to protect the state’s parliamentary seat share, which could be affected because of its falling population during the next delimitation exercise.
As part of his endeavour, the Naidu-led NDA-dominated Andhra Pradesh assembly, in November last year, passed bills scrapping a three-decade-old rule barring aspirants with more than two children from contesting panchayat and municipal polls.
Now, Naidu is taking his efforts to push people to have more children to the next level.
Speaking to reporters during Sankranti celebrations at his native village Naravaripalle near Tirupati Tuesday, Naidu said he was working on policies to ensure that only those with more than two children could become a sarpanch, municipal councillor or mayor.
“Earlier, individuals with several children were barred from contesting the panchayat and other local body polls. What I am saying now is that those with a lower number of children cannot contest,” Naidu said, describing the move as a form of “encouragement”.
However, in a statement the opposition Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) called insensitive, Naidu said that a policy would soon be applied to give more affordable Public Distribution System (PDS) rice to families with more members “in a shift from the five kg per person and 25 kg per family ceiling”.
Also Read: Rajahmundry then, now Tirupati. 10 yrs on, Naidu govt deals with another stampede at a religious site
‘Does Naidu want state to become coolie supply market’
Karumuri Venkata Nageswara Rao, the civil supplies minister in the previous Jagan Mohan Reddy government, slammed Naidu’s announcement.
“Does Naidu want poor people here to just eat rice, sleep and AP become a coolie supply market for other states and countries?” Karumuri asked.
He further told ThePrint: “What about quality education and health care? While Jagan brought in CBSE, English medium and app-based learning in schools, the TDP-led government now is discarding YSRCP’s good initiatives intended to make our children globally competitive. Engineering and other course fees are not being reimbursed by the present administration, forcing bright kids from poor backgrounds to drop out of college education.”
The senior YSRCP leader also criticised Naidu for what he said was “forcing political aspirants to have more children in order to contest entry/lower-level positions, while the CM and his minister son Lokesh too have borne only one child”.
“Can Naidu and Lokesh contest polls, if the same rule is applied at the assembly level?” asked Karumuri.
Double income, no kids
Naidu, apparently reprimanding millennial couples, noted that highly educated and high-earning couples are adopting a ‘Double Income, No Kids (DINK)’ policy.
“Your parents bore four to five children; you reduced it to one or two. Some smarter people now are saying, ‘Double Income, No Kids (DINK), let us enjoy’. If their parents had thought like them, they would not have come into this world.”
Chakravarthy Nalamotu, chairperson of AP Tomorrow, a civil society platform, termed the chief minister’s proposals as “hypocritical” and “unconstitutional”.
“It’s duplicitous when looked at from Naidu’s own family example of two generations. Any rule forcing couples to produce more children will be ludicrous, especially from someone called a visionary leader, as it is a bad economic policy. In a country with a 140 crore population, the focus should be on bringing more people out of poverty swiftly,” Nalamotu told ThePrint.
“We are not China,” he added. “You cannot disenfranchise someone based on the number of kids they have. The proposal is restrictive and punitive. And if a couple cannot bear a child for biological reasons, what about them? Such plans, needless to say, are violative of fundamental rights.”
Experts also emphasised the steep expenditure that middle class and upper middle class families incurred on quality education and healthcare in the private sector, services they said governments still fail to provide in many places. They said these expenses were a big deterrent to having more children.
“Anyway, what is this nanny state deciding how many kids should people have?” Nalamotu asked.
Jyothsna Tirunagari, TDP spokesperson, defended Naidu’s statements, saying the proposal was “according to the need of the hour”.
“Decades ago, it was the same Naidu batting for population control. Now the same administrator, with a futuristic vision, is pleading with couples to go for more children before it is too late,” Tirunagari said.
The TDP leader said that in addition to PDS rice, the government could also offer more incentives for couples having more children, akin to schemes in some states for having a girl child.
“Having a younger populace helps maintain economic stability/growth. Our leader’s concern applies to other south Indian states too staring at the dangers of a falling population. And unlike their concern about delimitation and reduced representation in Parliament, CM Naidu is worried about the state’s progress,” the TDP leader said.
Naidu told reporters Tuesday that many countries worldwide while creating wealth, raised incomes, but “failed to realise the danger (of a falling population)”.
“Today, South Korea has a growth rate of 0.7 percent. It is the same situation in Japan and throughout Europe. The situation was not predicted. Now they need people, we have to send them. It came to that situation. So, (unlike them) we have to take the right decision at the right time,” Naidu told reporters.
By 2021, India’s total fertility rate (TFR) had declined to 1.91 per woman, below the replacement level of 2.1 per woman. In comparison, Andhra Pradesh’s fertility rate is only 1.5, according to state health and family welfare officials.
This decline is the reason for Naidu’s insistence on demographic management, a topic that was also reportedly discussed in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-chaired NITI Aayog governing council meeting in July attended by the NDA ally.
Addressing reporters at the Amaravati Secretariat on Thursday, Naidu reiterated his commitment to ensuring a healthy population growth rate, saying that “two children at least criteria will be made the requirement legally to contest local body polls”.
“A large population was once seen as a burden. Now it is wealth and a resource. If the population goes on declining, we will have swanky airports, super highways but no people to use them,” the chief minister said while presenting Andhra Pradesh’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and other growth indicator figures.
Naidu projected that Andhra Pradesh’s TFR would decline to 1.07 by 2051 from the current 1.51 if the trend continued. “The state’s population is only expected to go up slightly from 5.38 crore to 5.41 crore by 2051,” he told reporters.
A TDP leader, on condition of anonymity, quipped, “Who knows, Naidu’s advice could be first and foremost intended for his son, minister Lokesh.”
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also Read: As Jagan & his MLAs continue AP House boycott over LoP post, call to ‘disqualify’ from Naidu’s TDP
