Fertility rates in southern states have gone below the replacement rate, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said on Saturday and stressed on the need for "population management".
Speaking at the HT Leadership Summit here, the chief minister said there is a need to talk about population management and it's going to be an asset for India in the years to come.
Naidu said he has been stressing that the silence on the subject should be broken and people should talk about population management.
"People are asking what population management is. You are seeing all European countries, even Japan, even China. All countries are having an aging problem. Only India is having an advantage up to 2047," Naidu said.
"Now South India's aging problem has started. Our fertility rate is 1.6. Generally, to maintain population, 2.1 fertility rate has to be maintained," he said, adding the population growth rate is at the borderline at present in the southern states and soon the population