How much more population does RSS chief want: Sanjay Raut

A day after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat expressed concern over India's declining fertility rate, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Monday asked how much population increase was on his mind.

"The country's population is already 150 crore and you call for increasing it further. How much more population does the RSS chief want?" Raut told reporters. "Do you have sufficient jobs and houses to support the existing population," the Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha member asked.



Speaking at an event in Nagpur on Sunday, Bhagwat highlighted the vital role of families and warned that according to population science, if a society's Total Fertility Rate (TFR) dips below 2.1, it could face extinction.

"So when we say 2.1, it is not feasible to have children in fraction. This means it should be more, at least three. The (population) science says so," the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief had said and described the declining fertility rate as a "serious concern".


India's TFR, which is the average number of children a woman gives birth to in her lifetime, has declined from 2.2 to 2, while the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate has increased from 54 per cent to 67 per cent, according to the National Family Health Survey data released in 2021.