India, a country where about 1.5 billion people live and are the most populous country in the world. India now stands at the turn of a big change. People were earlier afraid of ‘population bomb’, now worrying about the decreasing birth rate. United Nations Population Fund’s latest ‘State of World Population’ Report She says that Indians do not want to produce fewer children, but their compulsion is a crisis of money.
Why are people producing less children?
In this study of 14 countries, it was found that most people want two children. 41% of women and 33% of men in India say that they want a family of two children. But India’s fertility rate i.e. an average number of children from a woman has increased to 1.9, which is less than the replacement level of 2.1. This is a global trend but the real story is more disturbing.
The report explains why people are producing fewer children? Its conclusion is lack of money, uncertainty of jobs and home tightness. 38% of people in India said that due to the problem of money, they are not able to produce much children. After this, 22% referred to the lack of home, 21% of the uncertainty of the job and 18% disagreeed with the partner. That is, people are not choosing a small family, but the situation is forcing them.
The future of ‘Youth India’ is in danger
UNFPA’s’India aging report 2023According to ‘, the population of the elderly in India is increasing rapidly. By 2050, there will be more than children (0–14 years) in India. Today’s ‘young India’ is gradually growing old.
India’s youth population is considered as ‘demographic dividend’, but if the youth cannot start the family due to lack of money, unstable jobs or good healthcare, then this benefit will become a burden.
Choice or compulsion?
The report clearly says that producing children is not just a game of number, but it is right that people should decide on their own free will. But this right is still a dream for many women in India. Recent Guardian report Has disclosed that sugarcane laborers are being pressurized to forcibly conduct a hysterctomy (uterine surgery) so that the work does not stop due to periods or pregnancy. Contractors consider it ‘obstruction’. This is not a choice, but a atrocities on poor and marginalized women. The crisis of money is already snatching their freedom and it is forcing the situation worse.