After Naidu, now Stalin bats for more children

CHENNAI: After Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu urged families to have more children, his Tamil Nadu counterpart, M K Stalin , toed a similar line, though not so stridently.

Speaking at an event organised by Tamil Nadu’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) department in Chennai on Monday, Stalin questioned the need to restrict families to fewer children since states which effectively implement population control measures are penalised After Naidu, now Stalin bats for more children with fewer Lok Sabha constituencies.

“People in olden days used to wish thus: ‘Pathinarum petru peru vazhvu vazhga (Beget sixteen gifts to live a full life).’ Today people wish to have fewer children and live happily,” said Stalin.

“In the scenario of a reduction in Lok Sabha constituencies, however, a question arises on the need to restrict ourselves to few children. A situation has risen where we have to say let us also have 16 children,” Stalin said.

The statement comes days after Chandrababu Naidu announced that Andhra Pradesh’s government is planning to incentivise families having more children due to the ageing population. He has urged people of south Indian states to have more children.

The total fertility rate (TFR), or the number of children born to women between 15 and 49 years of age in Tamil Nadu, is 1.4, one of the lowest in the country, along with Delhi and West Bengal. Tamil Nadu’s population, which was 7.33 crore in 2013, is estimated to be 7.71 crore in 2024. It is expected to peak in 2031 at 7.8 crore and begin to decline thereafter.

CMs of two prominent southern states calling for families to have more children come in the wake of reports that the BJP-led Union government is planning to realign constituencies based on population, which, if implemented, would give a decisive political advantage to north Indian states, which have larger populations, as they would get more Lok Sabha seats compared to southern states.