<p>RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has again made some assertions and suggestions, unsupported by facts and based on wrong assumptions, in his customary Vijayadashami address in Nagpur. The annual address is taken to be an authoritative statement of the views of the Sangh on various issues and its members look forward to it. The population of the country and its composition has been a pet theme of the Sangh and it has used it to divide society and to promote its idea that Hindus are in danger in the country. Bhagwat has returned to the idea and has made some observations on population control which do not stand scrutiny. While he touched upon many issues connected with population, like its rate of growth, demographic dividend, and the need for steps for women’s empowerment, his emphasis was on some wrong notions like what is called ‘population imbalance’ and the need for population ‘control’. </p>.<p>Bhagwat said that population imbalance and demographic changes might lead to changes in geographical boundaries and that “population control and religion-based population balance is an important subject that can no longer be ignored.” This is wrong and disingenuous. India’s fertility rate has been declining steadily and the country may have entered the low fertility age. The total fertility rate (TFR) has come down to 2, which is below the replacement level rate of 2.1. The annual growth rate has steadily declined in recent years from 1.03% in 2018 to 0.96% in 2019 to 0.8% in 2020 to 0.68% in 2021. Bhagwat’s comments on population growth rate is relevant only in some states like UP, Bihar and Jharkhand. As the population has stabilised in most parts of the country, the efforts to reduce the numbers could better be focused on these states.</p>.<p>The RSS chief’s concern over demographic imbalance, by which he meant the assumed imbalance between Hindu and Muslim populations, is also wrong. There has been a secular decline in the country’s population and growth rate, and this has been true of all religious groups and communities, The Muslim fertility rate, which is now 2.3, has fallen faster than those of all other communities in the last two decades. In Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, the Muslim fertility rate is well below the national average. Other bogeys raised by Bhagwat about conversions and infiltration are also just bogeys. The Sangh and its associates have propagated the idea of Muslims reducing Hindus to a minority in the country. This is a false and mischievous notion with a political and communal plan behind it. Bhagwat is trying to invoke that again with his observations on ‘population imbalance’ and its consequences. </p>
<p>RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has again made some assertions and suggestions, unsupported by facts and based on wrong assumptions, in his customary Vijayadashami address in Nagpur. The annual address is taken to be an authoritative statement of the views of the Sangh on various issues and its members look forward to it. The population of the country and its composition has been a pet theme of the Sangh and it has used it to divide society and to promote its idea that Hindus are in danger in the country. Bhagwat has returned to the idea and has made some observations on population control which do not stand scrutiny. While he touched upon many issues connected with population, like its rate of growth, demographic dividend, and the need for steps for women’s empowerment, his emphasis was on some wrong notions like what is called ‘population imbalance’ and the need for population ‘control’. </p>.<p>Bhagwat said that population imbalance and demographic changes might lead to changes in geographical boundaries and that “population control and religion-based population balance is an important subject that can no longer be ignored.” This is wrong and disingenuous. India’s fertility rate has been declining steadily and the country may have entered the low fertility age. The total fertility rate (TFR) has come down to 2, which is below the replacement level rate of 2.1. The annual growth rate has steadily declined in recent years from 1.03% in 2018 to 0.96% in 2019 to 0.8% in 2020 to 0.68% in 2021. Bhagwat’s comments on population growth rate is relevant only in some states like UP, Bihar and Jharkhand. As the population has stabilised in most parts of the country, the efforts to reduce the numbers could better be focused on these states.</p>.<p>The RSS chief’s concern over demographic imbalance, by which he meant the assumed imbalance between Hindu and Muslim populations, is also wrong. There has been a secular decline in the country’s population and growth rate, and this has been true of all religious groups and communities, The Muslim fertility rate, which is now 2.3, has fallen faster than those of all other communities in the last two decades. In Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, the Muslim fertility rate is well below the national average. Other bogeys raised by Bhagwat about conversions and infiltration are also just bogeys. The Sangh and its associates have propagated the idea of Muslims reducing Hindus to a minority in the country. This is a false and mischievous notion with a political and communal plan behind it. Bhagwat is trying to invoke that again with his observations on ‘population imbalance’ and its consequences. </p>