Andhra Pradesh CM Naidu announces cash incentives for third and fourth child

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday (May 16) announced incentives of Rs 30,000 for the birth of a third child and Rs 40,000 for a fourth child as part of what he described as a historic shift in the state’s population policy.

Addressing a gathering at the Swachh Andhra–Swarna Andhra programme in Narsannapeta in Srikakulam district, Naidu said he was moving away from the family planning policy he had once strongly advocated and was now giving a new call suited to changing times.

Also read | Amaravati labour crisis slows Andhra capital works; World Bank discovers stark reality

“We once strongly promoted family planning to control population growth in the country. But circumstances have changed today. Our children are our real wealth,” Naidu said.

From control to incentives

He announced that families would receive Rs 30,000 immediately after the birth of a third child and Rs 40,000 for a fourth child. “Isn’t this the right decision?” he asked the gathering. He said the government had already taken the decision and that further details of the scheme would be announced within a month.

Naidu’s latest announcement follows an earlier proposal to provide a Rs 25,000 incentive for the birth of a second child.

On March 5, the chief minister informed the Assembly that the state government was considering an incentive of Rs 25,000 for couples having a second child.

However, Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav later told news agency PTI that the government had decided to extend the incentives to families having a third child and beyond.

Fertility concerns drive policy

According to Naidu, changing social and economic trends are influencing family size with some couples opting to have a single child as incomes rise, while others choose a second child only if their firstborn is not a boy.

Also read | Greening the concrete: Vijayawada transforms flyover pillars into vertical gardens

As a result, he warned that the state’s population growth rate is declining and stressed the importance of maintaining the replacement-level Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 2.1.

Naidu noted that a population remains stable only when the average fertility rate is 2.1 children per woman. He claimed that declining populations and ageing societies in several countries have adversely affected their economies.

Rejecting the notion that children are a burden, Naidu argued that they are an asset and said he would prove it.

Jobs and regional development

Responding to concerns over migration from North Andhra, Naidu assured youth of major employment opportunities. He said the state had attracted investments worth Rs 23 lakh crore in the last 23 months and claimed that agreements signed by the government would generate 24 lakh jobs for the state’s youth.

He also recalled that the government had already brought Google to Visakhapatnam. Naidu said youth from North Andhra would no longer need to migrate elsewhere for employment and expressed confidence that the region would transform so significantly through upcoming industries that people from other regions would migrate to North Andhra instead.

(This article was originally published in The Federal Andhra Pradesh.)