Just two days after AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu advised people to have more children, his counterpart and Tamil Naidu Chief Minister M K Stalin also advised couples to have more children. With the two powerful chief ministers from the South raising this issue almost simultaneously, the contentions may be different but their main concern seems to be fear of losing the number of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats from the South due to steep fall in population.
Both have led to a renewed debate over delimitation and its impact on southern states with their lower population indices. Chief Ministers of neighbouring states seem to be worried that the threat implicit in his remarks regarding a fall in population numbers is affecting the states’ political influence.
Participating at a mass wedding ceremony organised of 31 couples by the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department in Chennai on Monday, Stalin mentioned how blessings for newlyweds had changed over time, and went on to refer to an old Tamil saying from the book Manamakkalukku that enumerated 16 forms of wealth – ranging from cows and land to children and education.
Referring next to a potential reduction of South India’s share in parliamentary seats due to lower population growth rates, Stalin joked: “Why not aim for 16 children?”
Earlier on Saturday, Chandrababu Naidu warned against the effects on Andhra of an ageing population. Addressing a public gathering, he said his government was contemplating legislation to incentivise families to have more children, reversing earlier policies aimed at population control.
Moreover, Naidu cautioned that a rise in the proportion of the elderly could strain the South’s economy, a phenomenon being experienced in many of the developed countries. He cited the examples of Japan, China, and parts of Europe, where ageing populations outnumber younger generations.
He recalled that in many villages only elderly people are remaining as the young are migrating to cities or overseas. Citing that the fertility rate in southern states was well below the national average at 1.6. He promised legislation under which the government would provide benefits to families with more children.
Southern states are worrying that if population is the criterion for deciding constituency boundaries, the delimitation process, scheduled to occur after the new Census, would reduce the number of Lok Sabha seats in states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.