Telangana to end two-child policy? Why politicians in southern states want you to have more kids – explained

The Congress government in Telangana is reportedly considering a proposal to do away with the restriction that bars persons having more than two children from contesting local body polls. This comes weeks after the Andhra Pradesh government, led by TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, scrapped its two-child policy rule for local body elections.

Like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana would have to amend its Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, for the policy to be scrapped. In Andhra Pradesh, the government scrapped the three-decade-old law, the AP Panchayat Raj and AP Municipal Acts. Telangana was part of undivided Andhra Pradesh until 2014.

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy‘s government in Telangana is thinking of returning to the old policy, which was changed in the 1990s by the government of undivided Andhra Pradesh, a report by news agency PTI said. The two-children norm was repealed for urban local bodies in Telangana earlier.

A file to amend the Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, will soon be presented to the Chief Minister Revanth Reddy-led Telangana government cabinet, according to a report by Indian Express.

Concern among Southern States

Southern states are known for better implementation of family planning schemes. Yet these states, especially those from the opposition parties, have often accused the Union government of being partial towards them in the devolution of taxes.

Leaders of different political parties have expressed concerns in recent times that the southern states are set to lose a number of Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming delimitation exercise. The population-based survey is likely to be taken up in 2026.

Speaking at an event in October, Revanth Reddy said that the southern states have implemented the family planning policy efficiently, but the Centre is not ready to appreciate the south. He was referring to the delimitation of constituencies in the offing.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu urged people to have at least two or more children to increase the “birth rate for the future.” His Tamil Nadu counterpart, MK Stalin, also recently spoke in favour of having more children.

While Naidu flagged the ‘ageing population,’ Stalin subtly referred to a Tamil adage, ‘Petru peru vazhvu vazhga,‘ meaning acquire 16 different kinds of wealth and lead a prosperous life, and said the Lok Sabha delimitation exercise may make people think about raising “16 children.”

Andhra Pradesh, while scrapping the policy, also cited concerns about low fertility rates and an ageing population. The state’s Information and Public Relations Minister, K Parthasarathy, said that Andhra’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) was abysmally low. 

“While the national TFR is 2.11, it is only 1.5 in the state. This could affect the productivity of the state in the long run,” he said.

At least three children: Mohan Bhagwat

However, concerns over an ageing population are not limited to the Southern states. On December 1, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat expressed concern over the decline in population growth, stating that India’s TFR should be at least 3, which is significantly higher than the replacement rate of 2.1 per cent.

Speaking at the ‘Kathale Kul (clan) Sammelan’ in Nagpur, Bhagwat emphasised the importance of large families and cautioned that, according to population science, if a society’s fertility rate falls below 2.1, it could face the risk of extinction, news agency PTI reported.

“A declining population is a serious concern. Demographic studies suggest that when a society’s total fertility rate falls below 2.1, it risks facing extinction. This decline does not necessarily require external threats; a society can gradually fade away on its own,” Bhagwat said.

World’s Most Populous Country

The emphasis on making more babies comes at a time when the Union government plans population control measures. With a population of 1.428 billion compared with China’s 1.425 billion, India became the world’s most populous nation for the first time in April 2023.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, re-elected for the second time in 2019, declared that addressing a ‘population explosion’ would be a major priority. Union Finance Minister Nirmal Sitharaman, in her interim budget speech in February this year, proposed a high-power committee to address the country’s rapid population growth.

The Two-Child Policy

The ‘two-child policy’ is not a pan-India norm but is implemented by some states in India. The policy is based on the findings that population control measures between the censuses of 1981 and 1991 did not yield the expected results.

In the 1990s, the National Development Council (NDC) set up a committee chaired by then Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran. The panel recommended that people with more than two children should not be allowed to hold government posts, from the panchayat level to Parliament. The recommendations of this committee were adopted by some states.

Rajasthan was the first state to adopt the rule for panchayat elections in 1992, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, and Odisha in 1994.

Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Assam also adopted similar rules over the next two decades. However, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh rolled back the policy in 2005.