Hyderabad: Concerned over his state’s falling numbers of young people, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has embarked on a drive to promote bigger families.
Naidu announced the end of a policy barring couples with more than two children from running for office in the state’s local body elections — a move deemed significant.
The restriction applied to municipal or Panchayat elections but did not apply to state assembly or national parliamentary elections.
Naidu, who has expressed concern over the ageing population over the last four years, said that his government will now come out with promotional schemes to encourage people to have more children.
Addressing a press conference, Naidu said that he had earlier advocated smaller families, keeping in view the need of the time.
“But now I have changed my stand as [the state’s] young population was decreasing,” he said.
Naidu said the trend was the result of decades of family planning that stressed the need for smaller families. He pointed to China and Japan, where older people lived longer due to good health, which are also battling the ageing population problem.
“No country can develop without younger population,” he said, adding that fall in the population of younger people would pose a serious challenge to any society.
“We will launch [an] awareness programme to educate the people about the need for more children. [The] state government will launch promotional schemes,” he said.
Andhra Pradesh is the first state in India to ease up on family planning restrictions at a time most other states, especially in northern India, were still grappling with a population explosion.
