A nation that bewailed of a population explosion is now faced with a worry over the steady fall in fertility rate that has dropped to “below the critical replacement level.” Official figures now available show the country’s total fertility rate has fallen to 1.9 in 2023 – while it remained constant at the borderline of 2 in the previous two years. The population growth rate is declining as well, this being much less than one per cent in 2025. This is a sign of the times. India is the most-populous country, surpassing China, according to UN’s global population estimates released two years ago. One-sixth of the world population lives here. Without any coercion, sans any persuasion, the country’s population — steadily growing for decades– is showing signs of decline. By all means, this trend is bound to intensify as the general mood in every family today is to restrict child births and care more for a maximum of two children. This spirit is evident even among educated Muslims, a community that has been in the forefront of procreation worldwide. Notably, an Indians’ life expectancy is at around 72 years, thanks to steady improvements in the healthcare sector – both private and public. This has brought down the infant mortality rate too over the years, to around 2 per cent. Curiously, due to lifestyle related matters, larger numbers of women are unable to conceive today and are approaching infertility clinics for induced pregnancy. Put together, it’s natural that the trend of population growth would be arrested in the long run.
India’s strength, of late, was its demographic dividend. The energy of its 1.4 billion population is to our advantage in pushing the economic growth to higher levels. However, there have been no serious governmental efforts to tap their energies to the maximum. Instead, through free/subsidized ration to the BPL families, the urge for work is diminishing across societies. The poor who had toiled to make a living are now happily relaxing for the most part. The rich are “wasting” their energies through workouts in gymnasiums. This is unlike China that had introduced governmental programmes to make use of the energy of its people while it remained as the world’s most-populous state – a record that it yielded to its ‘Hindu’ neighbour of late.
Hinduism, as a religion, famously maintained a passive approach to life, set against the aggressive pursuit of goals by religions like Christianity and Islam. The effective utilization of the people’s energy made China a global Superpower, next only to that of the US. The US itself, a society consisting largely of immigrants from Europe, the natives, and slaves brought from Africa, toiled hard to reach the top position. The Great Depression of 1929 was a turning point. Hard work helped the Americans overcome the odds. An opportunity is at hand for the Indian government to put the present demographic advantages to best use. Else, the future would be bleak because a heavy burden would await the nation to feed its large bulk of the ageing
