The possibility of a population crisis seems to be keeping Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu up at nights. He has been using every public platform possible to encourage population growth. His latest effort came in the form of a conference on child nutrition held at Vijayawada on Friday. The conference was backed by UNICEF as well as the state legislative assembly.

While speaking on the decrease in population growth in Andhra Pradesh, Naidu placed the blame on rich parents for sticking to a ‘one or no child’ policy. As a contrast, families which are not so well off tend to have 1 or 2 children. He went on to say that the ‘one or no child’ policy is no longer relevant now. He encouraged rich parents to raise one or more children in the future.

He termed children as ‘future assets’ for the country and went on to mention the population problems faced by Japan and China. Both countries are battling problems which have risen due to an increase in old people. Andhra Pradesh’s birth rate is at 17.5% while the population is increasing at a rate of 1% according to the latest census.

Despite criticism from opposition parties, Naidu has constantly encouraged people to have more children. He brought up this issue on various occasions like the Smart Villages campaign in Nidadavolu (west Godavari district) and in Vijayawada on April 21st while announcing 4 new health programs.

But senior leaders within TDP are not enthusiastic with such an approach. They want Naidu to be more cautious while dealing with sensitive issues like population growth.They also feel that due to their alliance with BJP, they have lost the support of Muslims. Public campaigning of sensitive issues will only ending diminishing support for TDP and end up in failure once it is time for elections.