India is caught between a present opportunity and a future worry -- and must be prepared to deal with both. The implications of ageing demographic are significant and enduring

India needs to learn coping with an increasingly ageing population. That's the message contained in the latest Sample Registration Survey report. The data show that the nation's total fertility rate (TFR) has decreased to 1.9 in 2023, after remaining constant at 2.0 in 2021 and 2022. At the same time, TFR for rural India has touched 2.1 -- the replacement level where births and deaths balance out each other, leading to population stability. While the fall in TFR is a significant demographic marker for India catching up with global population trends, this poses a new challenge for the country as a whole, though some regions like the south have been dealing with an ageing population for some time now.

The implications of ageing demographic are significant and enduring. While the initial phase of low fertility certainly comes with a demographic dividend -- a larger working-age population -- in the long run, an ageing population poses major socio-economic challenges. A fall in the working-age population and a rise in the dependent population can hurt productivity and overburden the healthcare sector. It surely necessitates changes in systems and policies.