Latest news with #StateofWorldPopulation
Scoop
5 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
UNFPA Report: Fertility Crisis Is Rooted In Denied Choices, Not Birth Rates
BANGKOK, 25 June, 2025 – The real fertility crisis gripping countries across Asia and the Pacific is not about birth rates being too high or too low – it is about people being denied the power to make choices about their own bodies, futures, and families. This is the core message of UNFPA's 2025 State of World Population report, ' The real fertility crisis: The pursuit of reproductive agency in a changing world ', launched in Asia and the Pacific at the Third Asia and the Pacific Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Bangkok, today. 'This isn't a crisis of 'too many' or 'too few' births – it's a crisis of denied choice,' said Pio Smith, UNFPA Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific. 'We cannot assume that birth rates reflect people's desires when so many are held back by gender inequality, economic pressure, or lack of access to healthcare, information, and services. Fertility rates may fluctuate, but the universal right to reproductive freedom must remain constant.' The global report finds that rising economic insecurity, unaffordable housing, and unpaid care burdens are deterring people from having the number of children they want, even in countries with accessible health services. In contrast, early marriage, lack of contraceptive access, and social stigma still drive unintended pregnancies across Asia and the Pacific. UNFPA warns against both simplistic and coercive responses to population shifts, such as baby bonuses and fertility targets, noting that these measures are not only ineffective but violate human rights by denying individuals and couples the right to reproductive freedom and choice. Instead, governments are urged to focus on rights-based solutions by: Investing in affordable housing, decent jobs, and parental leave Expanding access to the full range of reproductive health services and accurate information Offering better choices for parenthood to single people and discriminated groups, including people with disabilities and LGBTQIA+ individuals Tackling restrictive workplace norms and gender stereotypes Gender inequality also remains a persistent barrier to reproductive autonomy. Women are often pushed out of the workforce due to caregiving responsibilities, while men face stigma for taking on active parenting roles. A tailored mix of economic, social, and political measures is needed across countries to help people start or grow the families they want. As countries across Asia and the Pacific navigate complex demographic shifts, UNFPA stands ready to support with evidence, technical expertise, and a shared commitment to realizing rights and choices for all.
India Today
6 days ago
- General
- India Today
In India, parenthood is becoming a luxury
India, now the most populous country in the world with nearly 1.5 billion people, stands at a crucial demographic junction. Debates around population often swing between panic over overpopulation and alarm about falling fertility rates. The United Nations Population Fund's latest State of World Population report reframes the issue: Indians are having fewer children, not because they don't want to have more, but because they can't afford to. Across the 14 countries surveyed, the most commonly desired family size was two children. In India, 41 per cent of women and 33 per cent of men said they ideally wanted two children. However, India's total fertility rate â€' the average number of children per woman â€' dropped to 1.9, below the replacement threshold of 2.1. While this mirrors a broader global trend, the real story is more unsettling, as highlighted in the report. The report examines why people have fewer children than they would like, and the findings show common trends across countries: economic constraints, work instability, and lack of proper housing, among other reasons. In India, money stood out as the single biggest barrier to parenthood, with 38 per cent of respondents saying they did not have more children because of financial concerns. This was followed by housing limitations (22 per cent), job insecurity (21 per cent), partner disagreement (18 per cent), etc. In short, Indians are not choosing smaller families. They are being forced into them by economic and structural barriers. Demographic dividend under threat According to the UNFPA's India Ageing Report 2023, India's elderly population is growing faster than ever and is expected to overtake the number of children by the middle of this century. By 2050, there will be more older people in India than children aged 0–14. A country that is young today is steadily becoming an ageing society. The large young population is often seen as India's demographic dividend. But it won't be the case if young people can't afford to start families because of unstable jobs, rising costs, or lack of access to proper reproductive healthcare; this dividend could easily turn into a demographic burden. When choice becomes coercion The UNFPA report makes it clear that fertility is not just about how many children people have; it's about the right and ability to make that decision, something that's still out of reach for many women in India. A recent Guardian report revealed that female sugarcane workers in India are being pushed into getting hysterectomies so they don't have to deal with periods or pregnancies while working, which contractors see as a "disruption". In a country where economic constraints already limit reproductive autonomy, these practices show how coercion still exists, especially for poor and marginalised women. This is not a fertility choice; it is reproductive violence. India, now the most populous country in the world with nearly 1.5 billion people, stands at a crucial demographic junction. Debates around population often swing between panic over overpopulation and alarm about falling fertility rates. The United Nations Population Fund's latest State of World Population report reframes the issue: Indians are having fewer children, not because they don't want to have more, but because they can't afford to. Across the 14 countries surveyed, the most commonly desired family size was two children. In India, 41 per cent of women and 33 per cent of men said they ideally wanted two children. However, India's total fertility rate â€' the average number of children per woman â€' dropped to 1.9, below the replacement threshold of 2.1. While this mirrors a broader global trend, the real story is more unsettling, as highlighted in the report. The report examines why people have fewer children than they would like, and the findings show common trends across countries: economic constraints, work instability, and lack of proper housing, among other reasons. In India, money stood out as the single biggest barrier to parenthood, with 38 per cent of respondents saying they did not have more children because of financial concerns. This was followed by housing limitations (22 per cent), job insecurity (21 per cent), partner disagreement (18 per cent), etc. In short, Indians are not choosing smaller families. They are being forced into them by economic and structural barriers. Demographic dividend under threat According to the UNFPA's India Ageing Report 2023, India's elderly population is growing faster than ever and is expected to overtake the number of children by the middle of this century. By 2050, there will be more older people in India than children aged 0–14. A country that is young today is steadily becoming an ageing society. The large young population is often seen as India's demographic dividend. But it won't be the case if young people can't afford to start families because of unstable jobs, rising costs, or lack of access to proper reproductive healthcare; this dividend could easily turn into a demographic burden. When choice becomes coercion The UNFPA report makes it clear that fertility is not just about how many children people have; it's about the right and ability to make that decision, something that's still out of reach for many women in India. A recent Guardian report revealed that female sugarcane workers in India are being pushed into getting hysterectomies so they don't have to deal with periods or pregnancies while working, which contractors see as a "disruption". In a country where economic constraints already limit reproductive autonomy, these practices show how coercion still exists, especially for poor and marginalised women. This is not a fertility choice; it is reproductive violence. Join our WhatsApp Channel
Mint
23-06-2025
- Health
- Mint
Missing from India's population narrative: Unmet family goals, financial barriers, coercion
India's population estimates often provoke extreme reactions: frustration over overpopulation or alarm over the signs of a falling fertility rate. However, such narratives fail to capture a nuanced picture—one that centres around what couples go through in their fertility journey. A recent report by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)—State of World Population—finds that Indians are now having fewer children than needed to offset deaths. A parallel crisis is also playing out with many couples struggling to meet their fertility goals, having either more or fewer children than planned, facing several barriers and struggling with coercion. Shrinking fertility India's total fertility rate (TFR) fell to 1.9 in 2025, according to estimates from the report. This figure has been below the replacement level of 2.1 since 2020. In practical terms, this means that Indian women, on average, are now having fewer children than needed to prevent the population from shrinking over time, without accounting for migration. 'This decline is driven by a combination of factors, including rising education levels, increasing urbanization, delayed marriage, improved access to contraception, and evolving social and economic aspirations," said Andrea Wojnar, the UNFPA's India representative. The latest Sample Registration System data showed a fertility rate of 2 in fertility rates have become a cause of concern, especially in developed nations, as their populations are growing older and economies are slowing. Such concerns are taking hold in India as well, despite it being home to the largest population in the world. Unfulfilled aspirations For many years, India has chosen a policy of population control through greater awareness about family planning and making contraceptives available to people, among other measures. However, beyond these policies, several complexities faced by couples may also be contributing to the current trend. Over 30% of Indians experienced unintended pregnancies, and a similar share also went through a time when they wanted a child but couldn't have one, showed the report by the UNFPA, which conducted a survey with polling agency YouGov. About one in four Indians encountered both scenarios. These findings highlight a widespread prevalence of having either more or fewer children than planned or desired, both with detrimental consequences. Unintended pregnancies can lead to financial strain from unexpected childcare costs and potential health risks for mothers and children. Conversely, having fewer children than desired can lead to heightened psychological stress. Barriers to parenthood But what are the barriers preventing Indian couples from achieving their desired family size? Financial constraint is the number one reason, with nearly 40% citing it as a major hurdle, as per the report. Housing issues (22%), job insecurity (21%), and one partner desiring fewer children (19%) are also significant factors in family expansion goals. Many are also holding back due to growing anxiety about the future, from climate change to political and social instability. For many, insufficient involvement of the other partner in housework and childcare holds them back from expanding the family, the report showed. Notably, Indians face a disproportionately higher share of barriers compared to the global average for 10 out of 14 tracked factors. The gap is particularly wide for concerns like climate change, inadequate pregnancy-related healthcare, and pressure from the medical fraternity regarding family planning decisions, underscoring unique challenges in India. Limited agency The discourse around exercising reproductive agency has been largely focused on women since they are more directly affected by childbirth. However, the report showed that both men and women in India report significant constraints on their reproductive rights. Nearly the same share of respondents (about 61%) in both genders reported experiencing some form of coercion during a reproductive relationship in India. More men (30%) than women (26%) reported pressure to have a child when they did not want one. More men also reported feeling pressured to use contraception when they desired a child. Alarmingly, 33% of women and 34% of men reported feeling unable to refuse sexual intercourse, highlighting widespread sexual coercion. This is broadly in line with the global trend, with 60% of men and 70% of women reporting some form of limitation of their reproductive rights. 'This finding, among both women and men, should be a call to action for all policymakers and advocates, a clear indication that sexual coercion is unacceptably commonplace for both men and women," the report noted. Positive trajectory India's declining fertility rate is closing the window for the demographic dividend. However, this may have come on the back of a positive development that prioritized women's education, financial independence, and health through delayed childbearing. Births per 1,000 women for those aged 15-19 years came down dramatically—and at a faster pace than the global trend—in the 21st century. The UNFPA report also highlighted that the recent declines in total fertility rates to low and very low levels, as evidenced in some countries, were intricately linked to rapid reductions in birth rates among adolescents and young women (aged 15-24 years), caused by a postponement of childbearing. According to Wojnar, this shift reflects meaningful progress toward greater reproductive autonomy and healthier life choices for young people. 'India's fertility story is not one story, but many. And the answer lies not in prescribing outcomes, but in ensuring an enabling environment where everyone has the ability and support to realise their own reproductive goals safely, freely, and with dignity," Wojnar added.
Indian Express
21-06-2025
- Health
- Indian Express
IVF debt, insecurity and judgment: The one-sided costs that women bear for ‘feritlity'
As the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) State of World Population report for 2025 shows a significant decline in India's fertility rate — dropping to 1.9 births per woman — the guilt of a childless future has been quietly passed on to the woman. Most conversations ever since have centred on what's going wrong in the woman's body, her hormones, her eggs, her infertility or why she can't summon up enough resilience to ensure no societal expectation is unmet. The fact is, no matter how much we commit to parity and equity, motherhood continues to be the only recognition of a woman's completeness. Look up any achiever's name — CEO, founder, business leader, inventor, sportswoman, banker, investor — and they all come with the suffix, 'also a mother to so and so.' As if every accomplishment falls short if one didn't pass the motherhood test. Great, if she did it despite it. Ambitious and careerist, if she did it without it. A childless woman is asked every day why she 'couldn't have' a baby when it could well be that she 'didn't want' one in the first place. This allusion to motherhood as a societal duty rather than individual choice is the reason that successful women are queuing up at IVF clinics and egg freezing centres, even willing to take loans to continue their treatments. Many of them are trapped in what is being called 'IVF debt'. The procedure itself has a success rate of 40 per cent per cycle if you are under 35, but they are still willing to bet on it. Nobody even talks about the physical pain involved. In our cultural narrative, women, after all, are expected to be selfless and sacrificing when it comes to continuing the bloodline in a tactical transference of responsibility. Here are some hard facts. Infertility isn't only because women have poor health and hectic lifestyles; men are going through the same, minus the guilt. Men are always assumed to be virile, and women are automatically assumed to be infertile. Men are as enthusiastic about fatherhood as women are about motherhood. Yet there is no prejudice against a childless man. That is reserved rather harshly for women. Young women are far more informed and aware of the toll their work and home environment is taking on them, and are keen to freeze their eggs. But is it cost-effective enough? With costs ranging between ₹1,50,000 to ₹2,50,000 per cycle and doctors telling them it's best to freeze their eggs by 29, a young woman has to battle a dilemma. Should she still gamble on natural conception, or should she, with no savings in a career that has just begun, borrow the money for the greater good? Assisted reproductive technologies may be changing the face of parenthood, but only in cities. Accessibility is still an issue in the hinterland. There may be public schemes on women's health, but funding for crucial research on their reproductive health is all but paltry. Besides, women are rarely made part of clinical trials and research studies. Economics layers every decision and agency to have a child. Women aren't always averse to having a child, but do they have the right partner to build a safe environment for raising a family or have pockets deep enough to go it alone till the child's college years? Even if she uses donor sperm, will the single mother be spared societal judgment of attempting a family in isolation? Nobody even dares to discuss parental desires of non-binary people and facilitating their baby journeys. And for all the well-meaning advisories on adoption, women hoping to be a single parent have to navigate a dark maze of legalese, scrutiny and most importantly, finances. As for healthy women of childbearing age, delaying a family is often not a matter of choice but forced by circumstance. Most women delay births because they get offloaded mid-career or are denied the promotion that could get them out of middle management into leadership roles, the moment they seek work-life balance norms. In a dynamic world, workplace inflexibility continues to be a decelerator for women. With societal complexities, stigma of childlessness and their own performance anxiety weighing down on them, many women are developing mental health conditions. These begin with stress, anxiety, depression and eventually a burnout. And as they wrestle with their private grief of childlessness, nothing prepares them for the public spectacle of their insufficiencies. This imposed guilt is nothing but a new-age tool of gendered oppression, one that creates another hurdle for a woman to cross in her quest for equity. However, women must not slip into victimhood. Instead, one has to look at the many childless women who make excellent grandmas, aunts, and caregivers, caring for the young in their families. Childlessness doesn't automatically translate to a lack of maternal instincts. If anything, non-parenting women can raise the community's children with an all-new neutral perspective. As author Maya Angelou says, 'If our children are to approve of themselves, they must see that we approve of ourselves.'
Spectator
19-06-2025
- General
- Spectator
The real reason birth rates are falling
Last week the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released its State of World Population report. According to the Guardian: 'Millions of people are prevented from having the number of children they want by a toxic mix of economic barriers and sexism, a new UN report has warned.' Dr Natalia Kanem, executive director of UNFPA, said: 'The answer lies in responding to what people say they need: paid family leave, affordable fertility care and supportive partners.' Nonsense, of course. Does Africa (4.1 births per woman) have better family leave and fertility care and more supportive partners than Sweden (1.4)? The reason for UNFPA's counter-intuitive findings is simple. They have not 'found' (the word almost every report uses) the reasons people don't have babies. They've found the reasons people say they're not having babies. People say all kinds of things. Against a background of concern at low fertility, and asked why they're not contributing more to maintaining population numbers, most people are unlikely to reply: 'Because babies are hard work, and restrict my freedom to live the life of my choice.' Of course they won't! 'I don't want children' sounds selfish. They'll instead say that they'd like to have more children, but for one reason or another beyond their control are prevented from having a bigger family. Even taking that into account, I note from the figures for respondents' answers to the survey's core questions that only one in five said they expected to have fewer children than they'd like. 'What they'd like' is key. Face it. Modern couples are making a lifestyle choice in curbing procreation. Babies are thoroughly inconvenient. Pets (say reports) are substituting for children as they're less trouble. Dog ownership is increasing. I doubt that the science of polling could provide the honest answers we need, but I'll take an intuitive stab at 'explaining' why the 21st-century world is having fewer children. Birth rates are falling not (pace UNFPA) because people feel less free to have bigger families, but because they feel more free not to. And it's women I'm mostly talking about. The reason for falling birth rates is the emancipation of women. Those thousands of years when hearth, home and motherhood were the limits of what a young woman could aspire to are gone. The cultural blocks on careers for women are being lifted, and that's a good thing. But it has consequences. Even after making every effort to harmonise career with reproduction, even after nudging men into sharing domestic duties, after extending maternity and paternity leave (480 days in Sweden) and penalising employers for discriminating against mothers who interrupt work to care for babies, after state help with nurseries and daycare centres and the financial incentives some countries are now offering for having more children, even after all that, modern women want a life beyond the front door. This is especially so for younger women starting out on a career. Later, with more seniority in the workplace, can come more flexibility and power to dictate terms. This is surely one reason professionally successful modern women now choose motherhood towards the end of the female reproductive lifespan. My mother was in her early twenties when her firstborn (me) came along. This allowed time for another five children, regularly puncturing the possibilities of career. This is backed up by a stubborn failure to reverse fertility trends through governmental attempts to incentivise childbirth. South Korea, Hungary and France have offered families a shedload of goodies – tax breaks and bounties of every kind – to grow. The effects have been negligible. The doubling of available talent for the modern economy must be vastly beneficial both to productivity and the sum of human happiness, but it doesn't encourage procreation. Why, though, do UNFPA and a host of other official voices call falling birth rates a crisis? It's only about ten minutes since world overpopulation, not underpopulation, was the popular cause for anxiety. Economists may answer that low birth rates mean either a contracting young workforce to support expanding numbers of an ageing population, or the continuous importation of young immigrant workers to fill the gap. True enough. But more babies mean – in the end – more oldies; and so do more immigrants, after a time lag. We can't indefinitely keep shovelling more births and more immigrants into the economy to feed a (consequentially) swelling care sector. If, then, we cannot fuel economic growth through babies and migrants, why assume we should be trying to grow the size of the economy in the first place? Let the country face a deficit of workers until employers pay more to bring more of the native population into gainful employment; let the increase in longevity level off, as it is doing. With later retirement, we could stabilise the proportions of contributors and beneficiaries and distribute the spoils of increased productivity among fewer people than if we carry on sucking in immigrants or succeed in cranking out more babies. Of course, if world birth rates stayed below 2.1, humankind would eventually become extinct. But that's for generations hence to ponder. For our own, there is no shortage of people – quite the reverse. And the fewer of us there are, the greater for each will be our share; and the more easily we could halt the despoilation of the planet. The world might become a nicer place to bring children into. My thinking here is not new, and has been argued more capably by others for decades, but the current panic about depopulation, the suspect underlying premise that more people means more for each of them, and the political mantra that everything must depend upon 'growth', prompt me to pose again some very big questions.
