End of demographic dividend approaching fast
The latest Sample Registration System (SRS) report confirms what has been feared for the past few years – Indian population is peaking and Indians are getting older much ahead of the original estimates. The birth rate (number of new births in a year per 1000 population) has been declining consistently for the past many years, and the trend has accelerated post Covid (2021). The death rate (number of deaths per year for every 1000 population) has slowed down. In fact, the urban death rate has climbed after Covid. The infant mortality rate (number of new born children dying within a year, per 1000 live births) has improved materially in the past one decade, but still remains much below the global standards. Sex ratio also stays adverse for all larger states/UTs. India's total fertility rate (average number of children that are born to a woman over her lifetime), or TFR, slipped from 2.1 in 2019 to 1.9 in 2023, below the replacement level (ratio required to keep the population lev...