Can India Reap The Benefit Of Its Demographic Dividend?

Sanjeeb Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Government of India attended an interactive session in Kolkata conducted by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.

- Kishore Kumar Biswas

One of the points of discussion was population explosion in India. This has become more sensitive after the release of the National Register for Citizens (NRC) in Assam. His version was quite balanced. According to him, the population growth of the country is less than one percent. There are some states where the growth of population is less than the replacement rate. This means if a married couple give birth to two children and they survive, the couple just maintain the replacement rate of population growth. If the couple give birth to one child, the rate of growth of population is less than the replacement rate. This means that when the population growth is zero, the country is just maintaining the replacement rate. There are some states like the southern states, West Bengal and others whose population growth is declining. States like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are maintaining a population more than the replacement rate.

A comparative status of population in India