Nowhere near extinction, but…

Given the burgeoning population and the issues of poverty, undernutrition, illiteracy, and homelessness, it is difficult to agree with the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s call to incentivise population growth to the extent of three to a family. As of now, the call is too alarmist. For even those not endowed with any common sense, it is the surfeit of population rather than any deficit that bothers a common Indian. But coming as it does from a man heading a national organisation, one cannot be totally dismissive about it.

All that it requires is to insert reservations where they are due. All that could be said as of now is certain states, mainly southern and western, have already brought down the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) to 2.1 to a couple, i.e., a rate at which the population gets stabilised. However, Hindi states seem to be lagging behind, although some of them are in intense race to catch up with others. Policies need to rigorously incentivise the smaller family norm there as economic growth has not kept the pace as elsewhere. At the other end, TFR has already dipped below the 2.1 in Kerala and threatens to follow a similar trend in Tamil Nadu. These state might need to revisit their stipulations, lest they run into scarcity of people to sustain the current rate of economic growth. However, Mr. Bhagwat’s concern pertaining to vanishing family values does need introspection. Families are the primary brick of a society or community that foster strong human ties, nurture discipline and strengthen moral foundations. Deviance and digression from family values is fraught with dangers of disintegration of social fabric.

The Western world is paying a heavy price due to increasing incidence of live-in relationships, shunning births, homosexuality and sexual licentiousness. History does bear witness to Sodom and Gomorah going extinct due to unrestrained permissiveness. It is useful to take a lesson from them, although one does not foresee extinction of Indian nation in any foreseeable future.