Principles of Fertility Rate (FR) and Population Growth

1. For prolonged periods, if the fertility rate is too high or too low – both are signs of a

decaying society. In an ideal scenario, it needs to be maintained at “appropriate”

levels.

In an ideal scenario, for a healthy society, the F.R should not be too high or too low

for prolonged periods. If FR is maintained high above 2.1, the population steadily

rises creating problems if it is not met with economic development at the right pace,

if it is below 2.1 that also creates economic and social problems that we are seeing

today. Less people in the workforce, less people to pay taxes, but more dependants

in the economy, also, less people to consume so there is less motivation for people

to increase economic productivity. Thus both scenarios create hurdles for economic

development and overall well being of a nation.

2. There must be clusters / sections in society that have high FRs. A nation or a region

should not go through an almost uniform declining or increasing FR across all the

sections of population. When such things become a societal trend - that is a sign of

danger. There should be families and communities who can have many children and

be able to support their care and development. If not, the government should create

such clusters in society - however, care needs to be taken to ensure that the children

get education, nutrition, and healthcare, else it can lead to a poverty crisis and an

unstable society in extreme cases.

3. Achieving an increase in fertility rate for economically developed countries that are

at the lower end of FR

OR

Achieving a decrease in FRs for countries struggling with stability and poverty &

having high FR, both will be a result of multiple factors that denote the overall well-

being of the population.

4. The number of children a woman should have should never be controlled by any

legislation. It is against the principles of human nature.

However, there should be a disincentive to have high FR for: i. Communities who tend

to produce too many children with too little ability to provide care and nourishment

to them ii. Communities which when present in large numbers could be a threat to

the stability of the nation.

The case of India:

India saw high FRs for a prolonged period of time causing population boom, also after independence for many decades India continued with a very low rate of economic growth. High population growth with low economic development is the cause for a lot of socio-economic problems such as high unemployment levels seen today.

Further the sections of society who could not afford care and nourishment for their children had a high FR while the relatively wealthier sections did not. Due to which, today there are less taxpayers to support the government’s welfare initiatives causing difficulties for the present government to strike a balance between welfare and growth.

In some regions and sections of society – like the states in the south – the FRs declined almost uniformly across the population of the states, causing – imbalance in their proportion today. According to several estimates FR has decreased across all communities, however for Muslims it is still higher than Hindus, causing fears of a religious conflict in society. Ideally the FRs for Hindus and people in South Indian states should not have gone down so drastically and so uniformly, this is not good for the holistic development of the nation.

Framework for policy making

Based on this policy making should focus on the following broad pillars:

Women
Community
Creating resilient and happy minds
Exemplifying citizens that having children can lead to joy in life. (It is surprising that in the entire discussion and research on increasing FRs there is no use proper use of concepts from social psychology, psychology, and behavioural sciences)

The policies formed out of these focus areas should -

Ensure women feel loved, cared, and protected in society.
Eliminate unnecessary fear which impacts the healthy development of mind. This will lead to a friendly society free from insecurity.
Resolve on individual mental health issues.
Promote physical health – procreation requires healthy abled bodied men and women.
Create a conducive and nurturing environment for women to develop a desire to become mothers.
Create high fertility zones in the country by targeting the right people who can be supported to achieve high levels of procreation. (Right people can be targeted based on gunaas, physical and mental health and ability to provide care for children). There can be geographical zones in the country, on the lines of special economic zones, where people are being taken care of to be able to procreate. Japan and many other such governments who are focussing only on increasing the FRs for all - are not likely to meet success. Instead they should also prioritise certain sections of society who can increase the overall Average FR of the nation.
Create a social trend to make procreation desirable for people. People need to look at couples who are happy with their children who will act as role models in society.
Create a community around care-giving and child rearing. It takes a village to raise a child!
Create jobs in the caregiving sector.
Promote friendly social interactions within the community – to make a joyful society that embraces change.
Design economic and other incentives which promote the right attributes in people that are needed for raising fertility rates.
Promote micro changes in behaviour, thoughts, actions, habits of people to reduce Tamas, and increase Sattva.

How to make successful policies ?

Devising policies and incentives aimed at a larger population to achieve behaviour change does not often work. People are irrational - simply offering them financial support will not change their attitudes towards having a family.

Rather than only focussing on long term goals, and the entire population, the action points should also be aimed at seeing some success in a short time in a small section of the population.

Policy making needs to take inspiration from the approaches used in tech such as -

User Centred Design - an iterative design process in which designers focus on the users and their needs in each phase of the design process. It follows this loop of 5 steps: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.

Continuous improvement in Agile is the ongoing process of identifying areas for improvement and making incremental changes to achieve better results.

Kaizen - the widely adopted Japanese business philosophy is something that resonates with me the most. Activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all the stakeholders in the process.

Principles of Fertility Rate (FR) and Population Growth

​

​1. For prolonged periods, if the fertility rate is too high or too low – both are signs of a

decaying society. In an ideal scenario, it needs to be maintained at “appropriate”

levels.

​

In an ideal scenario, for a healthy society, the F.R should not be too high or too low

for prolonged periods. If FR is maintained high above 2.1, the population steadily

rises creating problems if it is not met with economic development at the right pace,

if it is below 2.1 that also creates economic and social problems that we are seeing

today. Less people in the workforce, less people to pay taxes, but more dependants

in the economy, also, less people to consume so there is less motivation for people

to increase economic productivity. Thus both scenarios create hurdles for economic

development and overall well being of a nation.

​

2. There must be clusters / sections in society that have high FRs. A nation or a region

should not go through an almost uniform declining or increasing FR across all the

sections of population. When such things become a societal trend - that is a sign of

danger. There should be families and communities who can have many children and

be able to support their care and development. If not, the government should create

such clusters in society - however, care needs to be taken to ensure that the children

get education, nutrition, and healthcare, else it can lead to a poverty crisis and an

unstable society in extreme cases.​

​

3. Achieving an increase in fertility rate for economically developed countries that are

at the lower end of FR

OR

Achieving a decrease in FRs for countries struggling with stability and poverty &

having high FR, both will be a result of multiple factors that denote the overall well-

being of the population.

​​

4. The number of children a woman should have should never be controlled by any

legislation. It is against the principles of human nature.

​

However, there should be a disincentive to have high FR for: i. Communities who tend

to produce too many children with too little ability to provide care and nourishment

to them ii. Communities which when present in large numbers could be a threat to

the stability of the nation.

The case of India:

Framework for policy making

​

Based on this policy making should focus on the following broad pillars:

​

Women

Community

Creating resilient and happy minds

Exemplifying citizens that having children can lead to joy in life. (It is surprising that in the entire discussion and research on increasing FRs there is no use proper use of concepts from social psychology, psychology, and behavioural sciences)

​

​

The policies formed out of these focus areas should -

​

Ensure women feel loved, cared, and protected in society.

Eliminate unnecessary fear which impacts the healthy development of mind. This will lead to a friendly society free from insecurity.

Resolve on individual mental health issues.

Promote physical health – procreation requires healthy abled bodied men and women.

Create a conducive and nurturing environment for women to develop a desire to become mothers.

Create a social trend to make procreation desirable for people. People need to look at couples who are happy with their children who will act as role models in society.

Create a community around care-giving and child rearing. It takes a village to raise a child!

Create jobs in the caregiving sector.

Promote friendly social interactions within the community – to make a joyful society that embraces change.

Design economic and other incentives which promote the right attributes in people that are needed for raising fertility rates.

Promote micro changes in behaviour, thoughts, actions, habits of people to reduce Tamas, and increase Sattva.

​

How to make successful policies ?

Devising policies and incentives aimed at a larger population to achieve behaviour change does not often work. People are irrational - simply offering them financial support will not change their attitudes towards having a family.

Rather than only focussing on long term goals, and the entire population, the action points should also be aimed at seeing some success in a short time in a small section of the population.

Policy making needs to take inspiration from the approaches used in tech such as -

​

User Centred Design - an iterative design process in which designers focus on the users and their needs in each phase of the design process. It follows this loop of 5 steps: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.

​

Continuous improvement in Agile is the ongoing process of identifying areas for improvement and making incremental changes to achieve better results.

Kaizen - the widely adopted Japanese business philosophy is something that resonates with me the most. Activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all the stakeholders in the process.

1. For prolonged periods, if the fertility rate is too high or too low – both are signs of a

unstable society in extreme cases.