New Delhi: Facing declining fertility rates, India’s least populous state Sikkim wants to incentivise childbirth amongst its indigenous population.
Chief minister Prem Singh Tamang has proposed a special increment to women employees giving birth to a second baby and two increments for a third child, Times of India reported.
“We need to arrest the declining fertility rate by incentivising local people, including women, to produce more children,” Tamang said at a Maghe Sankranti function in Jorethang town of South Sikkim on Sunday (January 15).
Over a year ago, in November 2021, Sikkim’s cabinet announced that women in government service would get 365 days of maternity leave, while men could avail 30 days of paternity leave.
Tamang also said that his government has launched the IVF facility in hospitals in Sikkim to encourage women to conceive babies in the event of having problems to do so naturally for which a grant of Rs 3 lakh will be given to all mothers producing children through this procedure.
The previous government, Tamang argued, had made the mistake of promoting one-child families, and now Sikkim’s “fertility rate is registering the lowest growth rate at one child per woman in recent years”. His Sikkim Krantikari Morch government, Tamang said, wanted to do the exact opposite, and encourage bigger families.