India, Sept. 4 -- Rising anxiety about falling fertility rate

The fertility rate in rural parts of the country has fallen to 2.1 children per woman - the replacement rate, which leads to the population within a geography stabilising - from 2.2 in 2020-2022. This brings India's rural fertility rate in line with the larger global fertility trend; urban fertility stands at 1.5 and the overall fertility rate for the country, at 1.9. The country's falling fertility, celebrated as a sign of the success of family planning policies, improving socio-economic conditions of the people and rising educational attainment among women, is now at the centre of a debate: If the trend of decline continues, could it fuel a demographic and economic crisis in...