India will become the world’s most populous country earlier than anticipated. It would however be counterproductive to take coercive steps towards population control.
‘Overpopulation’ can no longer be a concern in India, as across states and across religious groups fertility has been falling in recent decades and approaching replacement level. Fears about a…
Demography has been detached from political theory and political economy, and population is now considered a part of the problem. A new chapter emphasising the economic value of a population is…
India’s family planning programme advertised the small middle-class family as a means to develop the nation. But its top-down approach meant that sterilisations became the default contraceptive…