Population stabilisation measures in states with high growth rates are taking a hit. The Madhya Pradesh government last month rolled back the two-child criterion for government service. Earlier, the Rajasthan government scrapped the two-child rule for contesting local body elections. The Uttar Pradesh government, meanwhile, has shelved the population law it had mooted in 2021. All three BJP-ruled states have population growth rates far in excess of the national average and well above the replacement rate. Why the back-peddling on policy measures aimed at limiting growth rates?

Counter-intuitively, high-growth-rate states seem disinterested in promoting small families, while low-growth-rate states are doing so. Back in the 1990s, the BJP viewed India's runaway population growth with concern: “Expected to hit the one billion mark by the year 2001, India's population is set to overtake that of China unless the growth rate is checked and then reversed.” It went so far as to advocate special incentives for a one-child norm. Now, the party needs to come up with a policy to address the serious population imbalances caused by the disparity in growth rates between states.

Policy Reversals Raise Questions

RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Rao Bhagwat's repeated calls for a ‘three-child norm’—never mind that India's population has outstripped China's—may have been a motivating factor for the Chief Ministers concerned, although their governments are at pains to deny it. But none of them has been able to present a rational explanation for the rollback of population stabilisation measures.

Rajasthan........

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