Fertility rate falls: EAC-PM report calls for scrapping sterilisation incentives

With India's fertility rate continuing to fall, the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) has submitted an important report on the issue. The report recommends ending the incentives and wage compensation given for sterilisation surgery. The council has also advised removing all disqualification conditions imposed under the two-child rule.

According to the council, incentives given for permanent family planning methods should be stopped. The compensation given to those undergoing sterilisation for their lost wages should also be discontinued. The council has suggested that the additional incentive given to service providers should be withdrawn as well. The report also recommends scrapping the ASHA incentive given for keeping families limited to two children.

According to the council's data, India's total fertility rate is 1.9, which is below the replacement level. Excluding Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the rate falls further, to 1.6. In Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Punjab and Delhi, the fertility rate has been below replacement level for more than two decades.

The council has also recommended discontinuing awards linked to family planning and population-control-focused programmes such as World Population Day and the sterilisation fortnight. It has suggested that the scope of the Family Development Mission should be expanded in line with the changing demographic situation, and that language relating to fertility decline, population control and stabilisation should be removed from both national and state-level policies.

According to the council's report, the country recorded about 2.93 crore annual births in 2001, which fell to about 2.32 crore in 2023, a decline of about 20 percent. The annual number of births in 2023 has fallen to a level last seen around 50 years ago, in 1974.

For comparison, the fertility rate of Northern Europe is 1.5 and that of the United States is 1.6. The council has also given the total fertility rate for various Indian states: Punjab 1.4, Himachal Pradesh 1.5, Sikkim 1.0, Delhi 1.2, Maharashtra 1.4, West Bengal 1.3, Goa 1.6, Karnataka 1.5, Kerala 1.3, Telangana 1.5, Andhra Pradesh 1.4 and Tamil Nadu 1.3.