Some parts of India have been forced to shut down schools amid the country’s declining birth rates.
Economist Sanjeev Sanyal, who was previously the principal economic adviser in India’s finance ministry and a member of the Economic Advisory Council to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has spoken about this happening and called for it to occur “more routinely.”
“Our population is only growing now because we are living longer, we are not having enough babies,” he told the Indian financial newspaper Mint on Monday. “So our problem is already the case that in parts of the country we have to shut down schools.”
India is one of the many countries around the world that is struggling with an aging population, meaning that people will continue to live longer while fertility rates fall.
The nation, the most populous country on Earth, had a fertility rate of 2 (the average number of children a woman has) in 2023, the most recent year for which the World Bank has fertility data. The rate has fallen drastically from 1950, when it was 5.7.
Fucking ridiculous statement. I live in a fairly rural area, multiple school here is empty, not because of lower birth rates, but because of monopoly and privatization. The number of new schools around me has exploded, more than 20+ new schools has opened, while the population growth hasn’t caught up yet. No parent send their kids to govt. school anymore.
