TIRUPATI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is working on a proposal to allow only those with more than two children to contest in municipal and panchayat elections. His statement comes barely a couple of months after the state assembly repealed a three-decade-old law that barred individuals with more than two children from contesting local body elections.
For the past decade, Naidu has advocated that Telugu should have more children to tackle the ageing population problem. Last year, he spoke about the need to provide incentives to families with more children.
Naidu mulls more subsidised rice for those with 2+ kids
After Naidu stirred up a nationwide debate, his Tamil Nadu counterpart, MK Stalin, echoed the views and urged people to bear more children.
“We earlier had legislation that allowed people with not more than two children to contest in local body and civic body polls,” Naidu said on Tuesday at his native Naravaripalle village near Tirupati while celebrating Sankranti with his family and relatives.
“Now I say that those with fewer children will not be allowed to contest elections. In the future, you will become a sarpanch, municipal councillor, or mayor only if you have more than two children. I will include this (in the proposed rules),” he said.
All South Indian states adhered to the two-child policy, as evidenced by their total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.73, below the national average of 2.1. The TFR of the five big heartland states—Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Jharkhand—is 2.4, which is higher than the national average.
Naidu said he will incentivise families with more children by permitting them to contest panchayat and municipal elections. He is also working on a proposal to provide these families with more subsidised rice. The cap is 25 kg of subsidised rice per family, with each member getting 5 kg of rice.
He said Japan, Korea, and many European countries have incentivised family planning policies because their total fertility rates are abysmally low. These countries are battling ageing population concerns today and have invited Indians to move to their countries.
“This is a wake-up call for India too, as we have been incentivising the family planning concept and restricting families to have a limited number of children. Some years later, India will face ageing population concerns, and we will be left with very little to do at that stage. But if we react to the situation with the right policies, India could reap great demographic dividends by 2047,” Naidu said.
