Andhra baby incentives: dismal odds of success

India’s first big state with a plan to arrest its population decline is aiming to defy a global record of demographic policy failure. Can cash handouts and promises beget a baby boom?

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The government of Andhra Pradesh wants to spur families to have more children.

The government of Andhra Pradesh wants to spur families to have more children. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has declared a plan to give families a one-time payment of ₹30,000 for having a third child and ₹40,000 for a fourth. In March, a policy had proposed ₹25,000 for a second child. The aim, as Naidu has stated, is to shift focus from population “control” to “care” in order to secure the state’s “demographic future.” Apart from cash incentives, a cradle-plus package may include nutritional support for mothers and young children, apart from free public education till age 18 and subsidized reproductive assistance at state-run hospitals. The state has sought public feedback on this baby-boom project.