NAGAPATTINAM: Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday encouraged newly-married couples to bear children as early as possible, referring to the proposed delimitation of parliamentary constituencies that is expected to be done on the basis of population. His comment comes ahead of the March 5 all-party meet he has called for to discuss the issue.
Solemnising a wedding organised by DMK’s Nagapattinam district secretary N Gowthaman’s family, Stalin, while winding up his speech with the appeal he usually makes to newlyweds to name their children in Tamil, said, newly married couples were earlier advised not to rush with childbearing. “There is no need to say that now,” he said.
“A scenario has currently developed where parliamentary constituencies are delimited based on population and the number of MPs would be higher when the population is high. Hence, I would not ask the couples to postpone their childbearing like in earlier times and, rather, would encourage them to bear children as early as possible,” he said.
The DMK and other parties in south India have raised concerns about a proportional loss of representation when delimitation is done, according to the 84th amendment, on the basis of the first census completed after 2026 (the 2021 census has not yet been conducted). With the number of Parliamentary and Assembly seats set to be allocated in proportion to a state’s population, political parties in the south fear that their states, which have slowed population growth, may end up with a smaller share of representation.
CM had raised ‘adverse’ effect of TN birth control success earlier
Although Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during a visit to Coimbatore, recently assured that delimitation would not lead to a reduction of Lok Sabha seats in southern states, the BJP-led central govt has yet to clarify how the process would be undertaken. BJP state president K Annnamalai, who criticised Stalin for “spreading baseless fear” over the delimitation, has said the party would boycott the all-party meeting on the issue.
This is not the first time that CM Stalin has raised the issue of children when blessing newly-wed couples. At a mass wedding for 31 couples, organised by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment dept in Chennai on October 21, 2024, Stalin had referred to the Tamil saying ‘Pathinaarum Petru Peru Vaazhvu Vaazhga’ (which blesses couple with 16 kinds of wealth) and said the threat of delimitation based on population might make some consider if couples should have more children instead of raising small and prosperous families.
At both the events, he spoke of how effective implementation of family planning measures in TN had resulted in lower population growth rate compared to northern states like UP. He mentioned how that might turn out to be disadvantageous if the delimitation is done on the basis of current population, expressing concerns that it could lead to the proportional reduction of LS seats in TN.