Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu unveiled the Draft Population Management Policy in the Legislative Assembly, aiming to increase the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) from 1.5 to an optimal level of 2.1. The initiative seeks to counteract the declining fertility rate and prepare the state for an aging population by 2047. To incentivize families to have a third child, the policy proposes a financial reward of ₹25,000. The Chief Minister highlighted the risks of inaction, citing examples from Japan, Italy, and South Korea, where TFRs have fallen to 1.2, 1.2, and 0.7 respectively. The policy is set to take effect from April 1, 2026. In his address, Naidu emphasized that the state’s current TFR is significantly below the replacement level of 2.1. He warned that if the trend persists, nearly 23% of the population could become elderly by 2047. A declining workforce, he argued, would cripple the economy, stressing the urgency of reversing the trend. The state’s goal is to stabilize the TFR at 2.1 while nearly doubling women’s participation in the labor force to boost the Gross State Domestic Product by 15%. To support this, the government plans to introduce the “Poshana - Shiksha - Suraksha” package for families with a third child. This includes a one-time payment of ₹25,000 at the time of delivery, ₹1,000 monthly assistance for five years, and free education for the child until age 18. Naidu provided statistics on family sizes, noting that approximately 58% of families (three lakh) have only one child, 2.17 lakh families have two children, and nearly 62 lakh families (three lakh) have three or more children. He acknowledged that as economies grow, birth rates naturally decline, leading to workforce shortages and long-term economic challenges.#andhra_pradesh #chief_minister_n_chandrababu_naidu #total_fertility_rate #poshana_shiksha_suraksha #legislative_assembly
