A Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Lok Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh has announced a financial incentive for families having a third child in his constituency.
Vizianagaram MP Kalisetti Appala Naidu said he will deposit the money in favour of the newborn girl child in the form of a fixed deposit of Rs 50,000, which could compound up to Rs 10 lakh by the time she reaches marriagable age.
“If the third child is a girl, we will deposit Rs 50,000 in her name. If it is a boy, we will provide a cow and a calf. The Indian population needs to increase,” Naidu said on Sunday.
The parliamentarian said he was inspired by the calls given by N Chandrababu Naidu to raise the country’s population.
It comes amid a row between the centre and the southern states, led by Tamil Nadu, over delimitation – i.e., the process of redrawing constituency boundaries, in this case for the Lok Sabha based on current population data.
Southern states, including Tamil Nadu, argue that their success in controlling population growth could result in reduced representation in Parliament compared to states with higher birth rates, particularly in the Hindi-speaking belt.
For example, Tamil Nadu now has 39 seats, or 7.2 per cent of the total. But a population-based delimitation could reduce because the state will get fewer overall seats.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has been vocal on the issue, urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that any increase in Lok Sabha seats maintains the proportional representation established by the 1971 census. This would prevent states that effectively controlled population growth from being penalized in the redistricting process.
Naidu’s scheme has sparked discussions about population policies and their impact on political representation, adding another dimension to the larger debate over demographic trends and governance in India.
