Health care spending is likely to rise significantly in states with aging populations.. File | Photo credit: The Hindu
Story so far: The chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have recently expressed concern over the low birth rates in their states. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said he plans to introduce legislation to incentivize more children per family.
After decades of family planning policies that sought to slow population growth, India is waking up to the fact that the success of such policies is also leading to an increasingly aging population. This is not a uniform phenomenon—both southern states and smaller northern states have seen much steeper declines in total fertility, defined as the average number of children born to women during their reproductive years. For example, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal saw a fertility rate of 1.4 between 2019 and 2021, according to data from the Office of the Registrar General of India, while Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh had fertility rates of 1.5. At the other end of the spectrum are Bihar with a fertility rate of 3, Uttar Pradesh (2.7) and Madhya Pradesh (2.6). States with lower birth rates have largely developed faster, but now face the specter of rapidly aging populations.
Published – 10 Nov 2024 03:50 IST
