June 26, 2026
Falling birth rates have prompted governments in several countries to encourage people to have more children. In India, the state of Andhra Pradesh has announced cash incentives for larger families, citing concerns about an ageing population.
In his Hindustan Times column, Vital Signs, OHT’s Dr. Ramanan Laxminarayan explains that such policies may be premature and overlook more pressing priorities. While India’s fertility rate is declining, the country’s population is expected to continue growing for decades. Rather than encouraging more births, he says that governments should focus on improving education, healthcare, nutrition, and employment so that people can lead healthier, more productive lives.
The article also highlights the environmental pressures of rapid population growth, including water scarcity and resource depletion. Experiences from countries such as South Korea show that cash incentives alone have had little success in raising birth rates. Instead, policies that support working families, such as affordable childcare and parental leave, are more effective. Dr. Laxminarayan suggests that investing in human capital through better education, healthcare, and social support, rather than simply increasing population, is the most sustainable path to long-term prosperity. “Prosperity depends less on how many workers a society has than on what those workers know and can do. For Andhra Pradesh, the challenge is, therefore, not avoiding population decline at any cost, but ensuring that each successive generation is more productive than the last.”
Read it here.
