‘Committee to Look into Population Growth Challenges’: FM’s Announcement May Make Sangh Happy

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the interim budget on Thursday, announced a plan to form a high-powered committee to study the challenges related to rising population.

“The government will form a high-powered committee for extensive consideration of the challenges arising from fast population growth and demographic changes," she said.

Ahead of a Lok Sabha election, the government did not go into a sensitive subject like population control, but made it clear that it needs study and probably intervention in the long run.

Choosing her words carefully to avoid creating panic, Sitharaman said the committee will be mandated to make recommendations to address the challenges to becoming ‘Viksit Bharat’ — a dream India of 2047.

According to the United Nations Population Fund, with 1.4286 billion people, India surpassed China in population in mid-2023. Today, India’s population is close to 18% of the world population. While it gives it the advantage of human resources, a large section of unemployed youth adds to the worry of the government.

WHAT MODI HAD SAID IN 2019

Sitharaman’s announcement was in sync with PM Modi’s concern expressed in his Independence Day speech in 2019, when he said that ever-rising population is a matter of concern and the section of society, which keeps their families small, deserves respect.

Lauding smaller families, the PM had said, “They have a small family and express their patriotism to the country. Let’s learn from them. There is a need for social awareness."

Calling it “patriotism", in his 2019 I-Day speech, Modi had said, “Those who follow the policy of small family also contribute to the development of the nation. It is also a form of patriotism."

IN LINE WITH VHP, RSS COMPLAINTS

While the FM’s use of the phrase ‘demographic changes’ may have gone unnoticed, it is in line with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and other Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliates’ repeated complaints. The Sangh affiliates have, in the past, raised concerns about “demographic changes" in Hindu majority Jammu, border districts of India (particularly West Bengal), parts of Odisha, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh among other places in India.

Alok Kumar, International Working President of VHP, has already said that “love jihad" is demographic aggression and it needs stringent laws to alter that. Also, in the backdrop of projections that India will have the largest number of Muslims by 2050, the VHP demanded laws to stop what they called a possible “demographic imbalance" in the past. While it may be too premature to judge Sitharaman’s mention of the phrase in her interim budget, it signals more than just population regulation.

The VHP, too, has cautiously welcomed it. “The BJP, as a party, has raised it for years, but as a government has been silent. It’s a welcome step to find the phrase in the FM’s budget statement. However, it’s the demographic imbalance that needs urgent intervention. Bengal, Bihar and Odisha witness large-scale illegal immigration, which leads to the imbalance. This government must step in," said VHP Spokesperson Vinod Bansal.