Telangana to end two-child policy? Why politicians in southern states want you to have more kids – explained | Mint

The Congress government in Telangana is reportedly considering a proposal to do away with the restriction that bars persons having more than two children from contesting local body polls. This comes weeks after Andhra Pradesh government led by TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu scrapped its two-child policy rule for local body elections.

Telangana, like Andhra Pradesh, would have to amend its Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, for the policy to be scrapped. In Andhra Pradesh, the government scrapped the three-decade-old law, the AP Panchayat Raj and AP Municipal Acts. Telangana was part of undivided Andhra Pradesh till 2014.

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy government in Telangana was thinking of going back to the old policy which was changed in the 1990s by the government of undivided Andhra Pradesh, a report by news agency PTI said. The two-children norm was repealed for urban local bodies in Telangana earlier

A file to amend amend the Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, would soon be presented before the Chief Minister Revanth Reddy-led Telangana government’s cabinet, according to a report by Indian Express.

Concern among Southern States

Southern states are known for better implementation of family planning better. Yet these states, especially those from the opposition parties, have often accused the Union government of being impartial towards them in the devolution of taxes.

Leaders of different political parties have expressed concerns in recent times that the southern states are set to lose in number of Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming delimitation exercise. The population-based survey is likely to be taken up in 2026.

Speaking at an event in October, said that the southern states have implemented the policy of family planning efficiently but the Centre is not ready to appreciate the south. He was referring to the delimitation of constituencies in the offing.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu urged people to have at least two or more children to increase the ‘birth rate for the future’. His Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin have also recently spoken in favour of having more children.

While Naidu flagged the ‘ageing population’, Stalin was subtly referring to a Tamil adage and said the Lok Sabha delimitation exercise may make people think about raising “16 children”.

Andhra Pradesh, while scrapping the policy, had also cited concerns about low fertility rates and ageing population. State’s Information and Public Relations Minister, K Parthasarathy said that Andhra’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) was abysmally low. “While the national TFR is 2.11, it is only 1.5 in the state. This could affect the productivity of the state in the long run,” he said.

At least three children: Mohan Bhagwat

The concern over ageing population is not, however, limited to just Southern states. On December 1, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat expressed concern over the decline in population growth, stating that India’s total fertility rate (TFR) should be at least 3, which is significantly higher than the replacement rate of 2.1 per cent.

Speaking at the ‘Kathale Kul (clan) Sammelan’ in Nagpur, Bhagwat emphasised the importance of families and cautioned that, according to population science, if a society’s fertility rate falls below 2.1, it could face the risk of extinction, news agency PTI reported.

“A declining population is a serious concern. Demographic studies suggest that when a society’s total fertility rate falls below 2.1, it risks facing extinction. This decline does not necessarily require external threats; a society can gradually fade away on its own,” Bhagwat said.

World’s Most Populous Country

The emphasis on making more babies comes at a time when the Union government plans population control measures. With a population of 1.428 billion compared with China’s 1.425 billion, India became the world’s most populous nation for the first time in April 2023. The

Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that dealing with a ‘population explosion’ would be a major priority when he was re-elected for the second time in 2019. Union Finance Minister Nirmal Sitharaman in her interim budget speech in February this year, proposed that a high-power committee will be formed to consider fast population growth in the country.

The Two-Child Policy

The ‘two-child policy’ is not a pan India norm but implemented by some states in India. The policy is based on the findings that that population control measures between the censuses of 1981 and 1991 were not yielding the expected results.

The National Development Council (NDC) set up a committee chaired by then Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran in 1990s. The panel h recommended that people with more than two children should not be allowed to hold government posts, from the panchayat level to Parliament. The recommendations of the committee were adopted by some states.

Rajasthan was the first state to adopt the rule for panchayat elections in 1992, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, and Odisha in 1994.

Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Assam also adopted similar rules over the next two decades. Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh rolled back the policy in 2005, however.