Public sentiment around India's population challenges is largely negative, with many expressing deep concerns over the lack of effective population control policies, education, and gender equality. Commenters call for immediate and strict measures to curb population growth, particularly in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, linking overpopulation to significant socio-economic issues. While some reflect a cautious optimism regarding the potential benefits of a declining population, most are frustrated with governmental inaction and urgency for change.

Government of India

Educational Institutions

Social Organizations

J S Mill once said that a society like India is "not yet ready" for democracy or self-government. It's the 21st century now and our masses still aren't educated enough for democracy. The lack of education and sensibility has time and again proven to be the bane of our existence.

_Kaccha_Kela

Educate females in rural areas &amp; areas with couples with 2+ kids

Sex education for both children &amp; adults 

Make contraceptives available easily (especially without any sigma)

A change of mentality for parents to not see kids as an investment (to reduce female foeticide)

Promote adoption for childless couples rather than IVF

Controversial but important: removal/capping of free rations &amp; freebies (reason being: many people take advantage of BPL schemes of free education schemes, free food &amp; monthly stipend for childcare and instead of family planning it promotes them to make more kids to get more stipend)

Finally census needs to be done every 5 years since most of the population contribution comes from poor &amp; low income households also they migrate to different states for work which puts stress on the resources.

Bannednibba

Pehle leaders aur beaurecrats ka corruption band karo, aur law security ko aur responsible aur sensible banao. Sab theek ho jayega usse.

[deleted]

Comfortable_Ad5775

laala laala nice good words , goods word part 2 again some good words nothing gonna happen any party of indian wont do shit 

 throw this democracy indians are not civilized to have democracy indians need stalin ( russia wale ) for 2 decades atleast , people who fear more people die in dictatorship . our people are regularly dying by infra murder current earthquake etc. for saving some mens we have killed more men actually indirectly 

more than million famrer have done sucide from 1950s alone

Wild_Possible_7947

I think Thanos snap is required on world population Day.

Sea-Smell-1436

Focus on space exploration. This planet does not have enough resources, we should strive to at least expand within our solar system!

CorgiAccomplished117

These days, more people are choosing not to have kids. Life’s getting expensive, work takes up most of the time, and there’s hardly any support system.

Owning a home feels out of reach, and for many, the world just doesn’t seem like the kind of place they’d want to raise a child in.

NoMedicine3572

Meanwhile, Indian parents force their grown-up children to marry according to their choice, lose their sanity, and often without financial stability, while pressuring them to have grandchildren as soon as possible. Because in some cases, the biological clock is ticking, while in others, it's "We won't be alive forever, beta."  

&gt;Marriage bliss: where bitterness is inherited, and trauma is a family heirloom.

waryinsomnious

The big issue is that a disproportionate number of kids would be coming from poorer families as DINK is mostly an upper class phenomenon. That would mean the next generation would be poorer and way more unequal.

Huge-Physics5491

Great , population will drop faster than estimates. It happened in all countries. 

There will be a time in future when avg age of population would be 40+ , that's when the health care &amp; govt support will be required most and if our country isn't developed, we will be doomed.

UnicornWithTits

Excellent. Population decline in a poor, resource deficit country like India is good thing. 


Before some people come with "jApAn cRiSis", first look at productivity issues in India. 40% of employable population is engaged in agriculture sector, while adjusted to GDP contribution, 10% or less would be fine. So realistically even a 30% population drop will not create labor shortage (informal and "unskilled") in India. 

Ok-Pipe-5151

Honestly, the national average fertility rate dropping to 2.0 sounds fine on the surface, but once you look at the state-wise numbers, it’s a mixed bag and kinda worrying. Only a few states like UP (2.4), Bihar (2.9), and Jharkhand (2.3) are still above replacement level. Meanwhile, most southern and more developed states are way below it Kerala’s at 1.6, Tamil Nadu 1.5, Maharashtra 1.6.

The wildest part? Jammu &amp; Kashmir is down to 1.2. That’s on par with countries like South Korea, which are already in demographic crisis mode.

This creates a weird imbalance: the more educated and economically stronger states are aging fast and could face labor shortages and slower growth, while the high-fertility states still have to deal with basic development issues like jobs, education, and healthcare.

Curious to see what the new census shows, but it feels like we’re heading toward a serious demographic divide and we’re not really talking about it enough.

HippieAuditor

Awesome - so we will age before we can develop!

Classic_Reference_10

Me and wife make around 75lpa in my family. 

But because 
1. I'm not much into having kids
2. Wife seems ambivalent about having kids
3. Massive job insecurity
4. No real family wealth as a backup
5. Having to pay for myself, wife, parents
6. Some want of retiring early

I honestly find very little incentive to actually want a kid, forget having one. Me not having one won't mean much either ways. Others will take care of population for my life time, and I won't really need to care about after. No life for me after me, and no horses in the race.

It definitely feels like life is getting worse. So why subject more to it? That won't change in my lifetime.

The_0bserver

People don’t have jobs and having kids is not sensible.

honwave

Population momentum is a fundamental concept in demography: even after fertility drops below replacement, the sheer number of young people entering their reproductive years ensures that population growth continues for decades.

This isn’t a matter of opinion—it’s the consensus of every major national and international body that studies population:

1) Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India (ORGI)

2) International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), India

3) United Nations Population Division (UNPD) &amp; UNFPA

4) International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria

5) Population Reference Bureau (PRB), USA

The general consensus is that India’s population will peak at 1.7 to 1.85 billion by 2065-2080 — roughly 20–30% higher than now—even with below-replacement fertility. That’s the equivalent of adding a new Uttar Pradesh, or the combined populations of Germany, France, the UK, and the Netherlands, to India’s already crowded landscape.

And this isn’t just some back-of-the-envelope guess. Population science is a rigorous, data-driven field. People devote their entire careers—earning PhDs and publishing peer-reviewed research—to understand these trends.

After 2100, even with the expected decline to 1.5 billion, India will likely remain the world’s most populous country for decades—possibly centuries—unless something truly catastrophic happens in terms of climate or geopolitics.

But let’s talk about what really matters: the quality of life for the people already here. India’s challenge isn’t just about numbers—it’s about ensuring that every person born has the best possible chance at a healthy, prosperous, and fulfilling life. Instead of obsessing over how many humans we can cram onto the planet, we should be laser-focused on developing our country, providing world-class education, healthcare, and infrastructure, and creating opportunities for everyone to thrive. The real measure of success isn’t population size; it’s how well we enable our citizens to succeed.

H2Nut

India can easily do without having so many people

alittledo_007

giratina143

India needs a depopulation program in addition to this . Way too many people for finite resources.

PrequelToMagic

Born_Experience_862

alli_niall

Some people cant even grow a cactus plant but have many kids that they neglect, abuse. Some people who are aware enough to think/ plan are opting out. Meanwhile super rich are making designer babies and outsourcing child birth to surrogates - India is idiocracy in action. 

Either ways, no one alive now will see the good future days of less traffic, more jobs etc. We are all screwed with over population, zero value for life - being alive when population is at peak, everything is super costly. 

There were good old days. There will be good future days. But for millenials and Gen z - It is horrible present days and how do you distract and not think about it.

Sufficient_Ad991

sysphus_

https://preview.redd.it/dq8sfxlcr46f1.jpeg?width=426&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=4cd67f9063f711ca3ef0311a639c1493140ffd48

SharmaJiKaBeta2

99% think population decline is a good thing
In the last 50-80 year timeline, population was targeted for everything going wrong

1. Train overcrowded? Population (instead of asking for more trains or better infrastructure)

2. Jobs not available? Population (instead of asking govt to create jobs or push new private sector)

3. AC not working? Population

4. Phone lagging? Population (because thinking is western culture)

5. 4G slow? Population (ask the fricking company to put more towers, instead of blaming the population)

So yeah
Any Problem?
Just blame it on population

koji_the_furry

andhlms

I really hope people thinking decline in fertility rate is positive aren't of voting age.

JoBoltaHaiWoHotaHai

Hindu fertility rate has dropped below replacement rate in 2015, the South Indian fertility rate has dropped below replacement rate in 2005. Hard times, eroding accountability and political power for those who made the right decision to downsize.

coder_realtor

Just because fertility rate drops below replacement level 2.1 doesn't mean India's population will start declining. It will continue to grow until 2060s due to population momentum

Anyway here's coverage from various media outlets

[https://ground.news/article/indias-population-touches-146-billion-fertility-drops-below-replacement-rate-un-report](https://ground.news/article/indias-population-touches-146-billion-fertility-drops-below-replacement-rate-un-report)

sharedevaaste

Andhra just made slavery legal, how could anyone in their right mind would choose to have children.

Responsible_Wolf_242

Lmao I don't get how people think this is such a good thing. I mean it's kind of 'good' in a traditional sense but if you look deeper we haven't even industrialized decently yet. Our per capita income is extremely less and we have already hit the replacement level barrier which has no escape once a country falls below it .

Countries like japan, italy, and Germany can afford having an older population but india simply can't. We will get older before we get decently rich.

Our window of growth is closing in and people are celebrating like idiots. They really don't know what an old incapable populace does to a nation just look at rural russia.

The truth of this world is that we need young people for growth. Economic, political, social and intellectual. 

It's the governments incapability it's not able to handle this much population. It should be held accountable instead people are blaming population itself.

India can manage its people well with the resources we have. It's the administration that's at fault.

zack_tiger

ITT: "I make 75 lakhs and life is getting worse"

Elibroftw

This is bad news. India does not have the political nor economic setup to take advantage of its falling fertility rate the same way China, SK, JP, Turkey (initially) did and how BD and VN will. 

Much better for India to fall below replacement rate once our per capita passes 5k. The consequent pop. growth momentum will ensure even a &lt;8% growth is enough to achieve a respectable per capita income. 

As we are right now, we can't make up for the 3-4 decades of growth India lost after independence when it was cosplaying a humanitarian tragedy.

NewMeNewWorld

As it must, hoped for the govt to pass a population control bill but if not that, nature at its best showing our resources aren't enough. It's about time. Our nation's population is unsustainable.

Puzzled_Post_3571

Bhadwasaurus

I think nobody saw the Replacement rate . It is below 2.1 . Fertility is falling. I don't know why nobody is talking about how we are well within range . You people are talking like Thanos talked his way about reducing population to 50%. So apparently it seems that our population is 1.46 B but we also have to point out that human live on an average of 70 years. 
It will take time but our population will come down. 
Contraception and awareness about increasing standards of living have forced many to have just one child. Do you want people to just go child less. What we need more is to percolate the health services to bottom strata of the society so that realising the current situation poor people also estimate their position and adopt proper reproduction strategy. 

I know my comments can enrage few but nobody was talking about NRR and GRR . So I thought I can just highlight those . Also whatever you say people are still fleeing from neighbouring countries to settle here. This country is more humane than others .

Feisty-Account-4305

---gonnacry---

It happens in almost any country that has an economic increase. Happened to mainland China too, when they realised that the one-child-per-family restriction no longer works. The focus should not be on mass-generating people first, but on maximizing living conditions in general; and after that one can think about other things with regard to limited resources. Also, a more fair distribution of the resources; exploitation (of resources) should one day stop or at the least end up with fair allocation of wealth.

shevy-java

The only solution is artificial womb and welfare state

ZealousidealBlock679

India will start having aging population in 20 years. Bigger problem in not population but low fertility. Fertility rate destroy indian economy.

Basic_Hearing9006

Amadace7A

Guys doomsday is coming with this lvl of population

kratos_chaos2808

Vergil_741

The entire world’s population is too much at this point. We have finite resources and such population numbers are unsustainable in the long run.

BobcatNorth5801

In my view, the one reason is the fast life and the needs and desire of people due to which stress occurs and due to which less quality time with our family and parents

b4cpramod

I am most scared about underground water running out in major cities.

batteryghost

Wouldn't have seen this coming considering the way we used to create kids in the yesteryears!

frankie_in_paradise

Aarvy271

emptybrain22

I’ll get downvoted but population decline is not a good thing at all.

applefellonedison

I wonder those who born around 1997-2003, getting married this decade. Would their own kids will get a job in mid 2040's ? I doubt the "Natural" Resources would be available that much

NeedForMadnessAuto

1.46 billion in 2025. It's already more than 1.50 billion. Not sure how this UN calculated that number. It is clearly flawed and wrong. They should show the source of this calculation when they release the report.

vikeng_gdg

Indias population crossed 1.8 billion in 2021, there was some sim card imei data.

Honestly, the educated working class cannot afford to have kids. 90 hour work weeks, high stress work environments, low salaries, exorbitant costs of raising a child. None of my friends are in a position to have kids right now.

Ok_Broccoli3337

Considering the number of brainwashed people on the rise, it's probably better this way

-Divided_We_Stand

India doesn't face an overpopulation issue as much as it faces a serious brain drain problem. Many skilled and talented individuals are leaving, and many more aspire to leave, which is a tragic situation for any country. Every nation, like China or the USA, is eager to attract top talent and will do anything to bring in skilled professionals. Meanwhile, India is losing its talented workforce due to poor infrastructure and opportunities.

eqlyin

By Jordan King - US News Reporter: 

India is set to join many other countries around the world that are heading toward a population challenge by 2050.

India is headed for an aging population, meaning people will live longer while fertility rates continue to fall.

Read more: [https://www.newsweek.com/india-population-challenge-aging-fertility-rate-2020340](https://www.newsweek.com/india-population-challenge-aging-fertility-rate-2020340)

newsweek

Yes finally !! Good news

Good for this country where population is just too much to begin with (it's not like we'll go extinct any sooner💀)

SomewhereJust5265

Population collapse is the single best thing that can happen to India reducing the number of useless people on this planet

ZestycloseLine3304

I will blow my brains out with a gun if i ever get so old that I have to rely on others to live.

ChillySummerMist

India has always faced population challenge. First it was/is overpopulation and now it's low fertility which is something almost every Western country is facing...

brazendude

Please make it happen. We are way too crowded.

smokky

Looking at the climate change, the future generations aren’t gonna survive anyway. So why bring them to life?

abhishek16x

Please stop having kids especially if you don’t want them

No_Opposite_1715

I was thinking the other day—it’s probably a good thing we have such a large population, even with all the problems that come with it. At least we don’t have to “invite” immigrants like some other countries do. I just don’t think that would work for us; we’re not great at assimilating or letting others assimilate.

India does need population to decline by at least half, unless we like the thought of high poverty within India, and yes I know what people are thinking "hang on a minute it's officially started the poverty line percentage is 5x lower than it was 10 years ago, yeah that happens when you don't increase the poverty line to where it should be, the poverty line is 1,000 - 1,200rs a month depending on whether you live in a city or rural area, this is not a realistic poverty line whatsoever even 10k a month is poverty wages. And is just a step that's been taken to ignore the poverty situation completely.

Which means roughly 82% of males and 92% of females are realistically in poverty.

Chalo 10 lakh log to exam nahi dege 700 job seats ke lie

Ab 9 lakh 99 hazaar dege

GanjaBhalu

I thought only Thanos can save india by eliminating half the population but it seems we are doing it ourselves? 


What a good news!!! This, puts a smile in my face. 




I think India needs a population cap of 300 million like US. We are crazy 1.4 Billion, which is worst thing to be cursed with. Because too many people, too little control and too little resources to distribute hence, we will never develop because survival is already best we can achieve given population density to resources ratio. 


Don't being China into this. China tackled it's problems with ruthlessness, while it's 'bad', it brought such a good results, India will not match it even if 200 years passed. While, we lack development, we have too much freedom. We gain something when we lose something. 

AttitudeMysterious69

One of best thing, now we only need to distribute population ... rather then major cities taking most of the load

Acrobatic_Fish_7846

Focus on senior citizen retirement programs, we have time to prepare for the challenging times. Focus on senior citizen friendly infrastructure, services, pension schemes, shelters, food supply services, healthcare centres for the elderly, medicines, and so on to. There will be a good phase after the challenging phase with a decent population.

Resident-Currency472

I still cannot trust these sources unless we get an official census which is overdue for 4 years now.

eatpringlesallday

It’s way worse. I believe we are already in a decline right now, the tax paying Indian &lt;10% of the population is already westernized and having fewer children now. The birth rate is kept up by the other 90% who are either not literate or agrarian or below the poverty line (the whole reason why we have a huge population in the first place) the rest of the 90% will keep having children 

We are two countries in one the tax paying class is already like Japan without the development

Ok_brain746

I would be much happier not having kids. I can't bear to have my own progeny witness this shit show while I was aware of what the hell is happening around us. Its not a world where I would like to raise my kids. the only thing I am going to give back to this god forsaken country is my Income Tax. 

  
Moreover, the population decline is sort of high in urban educated people because they don't see any incentive in having a kid and see it as a liability (which it actually is IMO, since we don't have any family support systems, shit infrastructure and climate change is going to fuck us all in the ass very very soon)  
  
Also, the population of some minorities is going to explode in the near future. You see it, I see it, everyone sees it. So many kids and they will start having kids within 10 more years. Parts of country are already lost (looking at you WB) , The mods and the woke junta will discredit this based off of facts. But guys, see around yourself how many people of your community are having kids VS others. The answer is right infront of you. However, I feel this is just natural selection and religious fanaticism at its best. Let it be, we all got one life, that too a pretty short one. Might as well ignore the cluster fuck and try to find peace someplace else. 

IDK how many of you are tracking it, but the winter season this year was terribly short. Hardly 15 days of good winter, the ripple effects of these will start coming up very soon. Just look at the temperature Bangalore is already back to 30s and Delhi will be too in a couple of weeks. Then starts the long summer time of Feb, March, April, May, June, July - would be interesting to see how we deal with water shortages this year round.   


We humans are like that, until shit hits the fan we will not do anything because its not in our backyard. Also human beings as a species is resilient like a cockroach. Lot of people will just die, but the world we keep on going.

abstatic

One more issue will be that wealthy people's population will decrease and the poor population will increase.

Smilesk123

Just look at Kerala. Before twenty years it easy to conduct a festival, be it Hindhu/christian or Muslim, as we have many youngsters ready to lead. Now, we have to hire people to take “Thalam” or Deepa in a festival as there is no abled age girls. Kerala will have more than half people become pension aged before 2050, Christian’s will go extinct first, followed by Hindus than Muslims.

pbfreakisme

We are in it, been looking at similar analysis since 2012

Eternal_awp

Wisky674

Nice demographic dividend I am getting as a middle class - Cant afford house, forced to work in toxic workplace, traffic is worse, and I will work till death even after paying taxes. 

I cant wait to have replacement kids so they can also reap the benefits of being unfortunately born poor or middle class in India.

the way i see it, of all my friends, those from orthodox families are the only ones having kids within first 5 years despite not having income to suffice for the couple.

d0aflamingo

Most people I know who are in India dont ahve a job. Living off rents etc. Why do we need more people if we cant provide jobs for the exisiting people

kthxciao2377

That's what happens when you replace pensions with PF

Good that government removed the pension system.

Hot_Explanation3255

Source: [https://www.visualcapitalist.com/peak-population-for-the-largest-countries-in-the-world/](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/peak-population-for-the-largest-countries-in-the-world/)

freddledgruntbugly

Now, add a billion robots to human jobs, India’s future is very uncertain.

MillennialHusky

Because of high population Indians will immigrate abroad, which will increase racism

Suitable-Ad3748

Looks like competition for food and job is going to be high. Better start visa process now

mdfasil25

A sane country would learn from its model states. Instead the central government in India continues to antagonise states that perform well. Worse, it punishes success and in some cases actively tries to demonise model states.

78 years of North Indian hegemony has led us nowhere. The hegemony is so strong that today, an Indian citizen who is not from this belt, cannot realistically even head the nation (in ordinary circumstances). 

India’s successful states don’t have enough of a say in the governance of the country.

Ramen-hypothesis

Ek baccha meethi kheer, usse zyada bawasir.

Ejsberg

There are alternate projections online that peak India's population at around the 2047 to 2050 range, which seems more plausible because it takes into account the acceleration in the decrease of birth rates, and the projection I had seen is more geared to peak at 1.6B.. 

But this curve also means that almost everyone who is 30 and up right now will be on the peak of old age before the decrease happens, so basically unless we industrialized rapidly, we won't be going very far, but considering how much there is resistance to land development and also the rent seeking that is happening for land, it seems to be an uphill task for India to insuteialize fully, although the opportunity seems promed to ensure that we will have plenty of people looking for work

_rmbler

This large population was supposed to be a boon, but alas. The politicians have made it so that it feels like we are thinking backwards: while other major countries are worried about population collapse, we still have to think about reducing population.

The climate crisis will fuck up the cities in the cow belt badly and cause an even more migration into the already burdened few cities that this country has.

ArtoriasOfTheAbyss99

Bimaru states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar still have poor quality government schools, most of them drop out to be labourers. When will Modi government create better government schools or hospitals in Bimaru states?

Constant-Recipe-9850

World Population Day emphasized India's demographic challenges and the need for policies promoting gender equality and women's reproductive rights.

World Population Day 2025 and India's Population Challenges

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