Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday expressed concern about India’s falling fertility rate and urged couples to have at least three children to prevent population decline, The Indian Express reported.

“According to population science, when the population growth is below 2.1 [total fertility rate], a society perishes on its own,” Bhagwat said at an event in Nagpur. “Nobody destroys it. It no longer exists anywhere in the world. Therefore, it should not come below 2.1 at any cost.”

The “total fertility rate” refers to the average number of children a woman from a country will give birth to throughout her reproductive years. A total fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman ensures that a country’s population remains stable, under broad circumstances.

Bhagwat added: “As per the population policy of 1998 or 2002, I don’t exactly remember, it was said that the population growth rate should not go below 2.1. Now a human is not born in the 0.1 fraction… So, it should be a minimum of three.”

He added that that family is counted as a vital unit that makes up society. “The culture and values are inherited and passed from one generation to another, thus preserving the core systems and values that are timeless and relevant not just to Indians but also globally,” he said.

In October 2022, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief had pitched for a comprehensive population control policy that applied to all communities, raising concerns about “religion-based imbalance”.

“Population requires resources, or it becomes a burden,” he had said. “There is a view that population can be an asset. We need to work on a policy keeping both aspects in mind”.

Bhagwat had also said at the time that along with population control, balancing population on religious lines was also important.

The latest comment by Bhagwat comes at a time when chief ministers from the southern states have raised concern about the ageing population in their states.

On October 19, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu urged people living in South Indian states to have more children to combat an ageing crisis. He also announced plans for legislation to incentivise people in his state to have larger families.

“Though we have a demographic advantage until 2047, signs of ageing problem are starting to appear in South India, including Andhra,” Naidu said.

Naidu pointed out that the fertility rate in southern states had fallen to an average of 1.6, while it is 2.1 at the national level. A fertility rate of 1.6 means that a woman, on average, is expected to have 1.6 children in her lifetime.

“If it declines any further, we will see a higher number of elderly people by 2047, which is not desirable,” the chief minister said. “In many villages across Andhra and other parts of the country, only elderly people remain. The younger population has moved to cities.”

Organiser, the mouthpiece of the Sangh, has also raised concerns that lower birth rates may put western and southern states at a “disadvantage” during the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies in the future.

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