Stillborn ideas

Andhra has proposed ₹25k as incentive for couples to produce a third child. Couples are smiling – not about making Baby No. 3, but at CM Naidu’s touching faith that ₹25k is incentive at all. Everyone knows, making a baby is one thing, raising a child quite another. It takes a village. A child needs investment in hard cash over many years for food, health, education. Naidu well knows people are having fewer children for very practical reasons – urbanisation, education, high living costs, job insecurity all contribute to falling birth rates.

But why fear an ageing population that Andhra has cited as the cause for its incentive? Policy must square progress in achieving population stability (longevity + falling fertility rate) with innovations that’ll cater to an elder population. Ageing societies reflect proper diet, health and living standards. High life expectancy is a sign people are living healthier for longer. That’s good, right?

Add to that a rapidly automating world. Take Japan, for instance. It doesn’t lament its greying society but instead, is encouraging older people to keep working or take up part-time jobs. Companies and govt support training for older workers to stay productive in work where experience counts. It is hugely investing in robots and AI to help in factories, transport, farming and elder care too. It’s bringing younger foreigners for work that can’t be automated. What it hasn’t done is ask its people to make more babies. Couples can make babies, no problem – it’s for Naidu to provide schools, hospitals, nutrition programmes and jobs for future workers. Give that a second thought.

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