Couples should have 3 kids to maintain fertility rate at 2.1, says RSS chief

Three years after he had called for a population-control law in his Vijayadashami address in October 2022, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday asked Indians not to marry late, and urged that couples should have a maximum of three children to keep the total fertility rate (TFR) at 2.1, which is considered the replacement-level fertility rate.

- ARCHIS MOHAN

Bhagwat's comments are notable with the TFR dropping below replacement levels in most states in India, and across almost all religions. India's family-planning programme has for decades asked couples to have not more than two children. But of late, chief ministers, such as Andhra Pradesh's N Chandrababu Naidu and Tamil Nadu's M K Stalin, have asked people to have more children.

On the concluding day of his three-day lecture series in the national capital, which has been organised in the runup to the Sangh's centenary celebrations, the RSS chief replied to a wide range of questions, including on religious conversions, the organisation's relations with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Hindu-Muslim friction and the Sangh's role in it.

Bhagwat defended reservations based on social and economic backwardness, and said the issue should be broached with empathy for those who had suffered discrimination for centuries. He also gave clarification on the question of 75 being the retirement age.