"Baby Boom" Or Small Family Population Policy : What India Needs

It's quite amusing to find a minister announcing a cash incentive of Rs. 1 lakh to a living parent with the highest number of children. This is what Mizoram sports minister has done.  His apparent motive is to encourage population growth among the demographically small Mizo communities. The person will also get a certificate and a trophy, the minister announced. However, this monetary incentive is applicable within his Aizawl East-2 assembly constituency, 

On the occasion of Father's Day on Sunday, minister  Robert Royte announced that he would reward a living man or woman having the largest number of offspring within his Aizawl East-2 assembly constituency with a cash incentive of Rs. 1 lakh. Apparently, the cost of the incentive will be borne by a construction consultancy firm owned by Royte's son.

Minister Royte, is also the owner of Aizawl Football Club, the first football club from Northeast to win I-League in 2016-2017.

Earlier Royte, had announced to bear the ration expenses of over 11,000 poor people of his constituency for eight months through his own savings and not from government funds.

The announcement of a baby boom policy came at a time when most states are in favor of a two-child policy.

The neighboring Assam government has decided to gradually implement a two-child policy for availing benefits under certain schemes funded by the state. In 2019, the state administration decided that those with more than two children would not be eligible for government jobs from January 2021.

The unprecedented baby boom in Uttar Pradesh is already squeezing the state's financial resources. Uttar Pradesh Law Commission Chairperson, Aditya Nath Mittal said on Sunday that the state's population is nearing an explosive stage and there should be a check on the rising population so that people can get government facilities and resources. 

Mizoram situation is quite different. With a population of 1,091,014 (2011 census), the state density of population is just 52 persons per square kilometre-  the second lowest population density in the country next to Arunachal Pradesh. Arunachal has a population density of 17 persons per sq km. The national average is 382 per sq km. 

The minister has expressed his concern over declining infertility and growth rate of the Mizo population. As such, the sports minister may be justified in his stand.  

Mizoram is home to various Mizo tribes. However, the MNF (Mizo Naational Front) govt hasn't yet endoresed the  Royte's baby boom policy.   

So is it that Mizoram is going the Chinese way? It may be recalled that  China was following the one-child policy for long. But had to abondon this policy in 2015 after China was pushed into a “low-fertility trap”. Thereafter, Beijing allowed every family to have two children on Oct. 29, 2015.

However, in China the "baby boom" policy didn't work as most of the families across the country, are still against having more children, fearing the more children would impact their finances and lifestyles.

After an initial spike in 2016, China’s birth rate fell in each of the following three years, confounding the expectations of both officials and academics. In 2019, the country recorded only 14.65 million births, while the birth rate fell to under 10.5 per 1,000 — the lowest level since 1952. 

Experts felt that the decline could push China into a “low-fertility trap” — an economic chain reaction wherein a growing elderly population acts as a drag on growth and sends care costs spiraling. 

It's  different for a small state like Mizoram where more and more productive hands are needed. 

So India needed a mix of population policy that meets the demand of each area and state.

(Chander Sharma)