'India Must Move Beyond Population Anxiety,' Population Expert Tells Times Now Digital

For decades, India was at the centre of the global conversation on population growth, with fears of a population explosion dominating policy and public debate. But the country's demographic story is changing rapidly. With India's fertility rate now falling below the replacement level, experts say the challenge is no longer simply about controlling numbers but preparing for an ageing population, addressing regional disparities and ensuring every individual has access to education, healthcare and reproductive rights.On World Population Day, Times Now Digital spoke exclusively to Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India, about what India's changing population trends mean, why the conversation around fertility needs a reset

and where the country's biggest policy priorities should lie.1) India is the world's most populous country, but fertility rates have reportedly fallen below replacement level in many states. Is the bigger challenge today population growth or managing an ageing, unevenly distributed population?India needs to move beyond old anxieties about population growth. NFHS-6 shows India’s Total Fertility Rate at 2.0, with many states already below replacement level. The bigger challenge now is managing an uneven demographic transition. Bihar has a TFR of 2.7, while several southern and urban regions are already ageing and have much lower fertility. This means India cannot have one national population response. High-fertility regions need continued investments in girls’ education, child marriage prevention, contraception and reproductive health. Low-fertility regions need childcare, infertility care, geriatric services, social protection and support for women’s workforce participation. India’s future depends on planning for diversity, not reacting with panic.2) The conversation around population often focuses on numbers but experts say women's education, reproductive rights and access to family planning are the real drivers. Where does India still have the biggest gaps?The biggest gaps are in access, agency and quality of care. India has made important progress, but NFHS-6 shows that unmet need for family planning remains high in states such as Meghalaya, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. Child marriage also persists, with one in five women aged 20–24 married before 18 nationally, and much higher levels in some states. Modern contraceptive use has declined, while traditional method use has increased, which is worrying. The burden of contraception still falls overwhelmingly on women, with male sterilisation at only 0.5%. We need rights-based family planning, better counselling, adolescent health services, reproductive health information, and stronger male engagement.3) On this World Population Day, what is the one misconception about India's population that people need to move beyond, and what should the national conversation be focusing on instead?The biggest misconception is that India’s population story is still only about numbers. For decades, we worried about having too many people. Now some voices are beginning to worry about too few children. Both narratives miss the point. The real issue is whether people have the health, education, dignity, care support and freedom to make informed choices about their lives. On World Population Day, India should focus on inequality, reproductive agency, women’s empowerment, youth opportunity and healthy ageing. We should stop asking how to push fertility up or down and ask how to build a society where every child is wanted, every woman has agency, and every generation can live with dignity.