Giriraj Singh – the Indian Minister of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries – recently triggered a controversy by stating that “the voting rights of couples with more than two kids must be stripped off”! It is difficult to ignore his demand, keeping in mind the current socio-economic situation in the South Asian country…
Singh is not alone… there are so many people in India who believe in a likewise manner. These people are disturbed by the Population Explosion. The Minister also said: “In India, population explosion is disturbing the balance of economy, social harmony and resources.”

However, the fact is that the birth rate has started decreasing in India, in recent times! In many Indian provinces, the current population growth rate is lower than ever. Another fact is that even if the birth rate is still high among a particular community, or in a particular region, it is not possible in a democratic system to control the population by stripping off the voting rights, or by depriving the people of government jobs or other services, or by any other undemocratic methods. The Birth Control should be done only through the people’s consent…
But, is there a need for birth control in the entire country?
As per the statistics prepared by the Government of India, differences between fertility rates or birth rates in different Indian provinces are huge! While a woman gives birth to an average of 3.3 children during her fertility in Bihar, the rate is 1.6 in neighbouring West Bengal. Meanwhile, the national average is 2.2.

All the birth rate-related researches indicate that various social factors – like education, empowerment of women, financial status, etc. – have a great impact on the birth rate. It is hence, the population explosion is not a problem faced by any particular community or province… it is more of a socio-economic problem…
So, the problem cannot be solved by stripping off the voting rights. The Government will have to take necessary steps in order to address the issue. The problem is that the Indian Government plans to follow the steps taken by neighbouring China blindly, without considering the fact that Beijing’s ‘One Child Policy’ has backfired!

The Government of India should consider whether the country’s population is really high. In every country, the population reaches its highest level at one stage, and then declines gradually. In demographics, it is called ‘peak’. The Indian population would reach its peak in the next 20 years. However, the most important statistics is that the proportion of children in the Indian population reached the highest level almost a decade ago, and it is on a slow decline now. As a result, India, somewhat like the Developed Nations, has slowly become the Country of the Elderly People. And, there is hardly proper social protection or social security for them! In such a situation, any step to control the population would certainly have an adverse effect on the entire country.
Unfortunately, Giriraj Singh and people like him seemingly have little responsibility to think in this fashion…

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das