– Number of people drops from 6.82 lakh in 2011 to 6.38 lakh in 2023
GBT/TTI: Sikkim has registered a negative population growth and is the only state after Nagaland to witness a shrink in population in the country.
Sikkim chief minister Prem Singh Tamang (Golay) said on Thursday that the state’s population had declined from 6.82 lakh in 2011 to 6.38 lakh in 2023.
“We recently conducted a survey and the population of Sikkim has decreased from 6.82 lakh in 2011 to 6.38 lakh. This is a serious issue for our state,” said Golay.
Nagaland had registered a negative population growth during the 2011 census.
According to the National Family Health Survey 2019-2021, Sikkim’s fertility rate is the lowest in the country. From the total fertility rate (TFR) of 2.01 in 2009, it came down to 1.1. The national fertility rate decreased from 2.6 to 2.0 during the same period.
The TFR is the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime.
“Our state has not been able to even keep a steady population figure,” said Golay.
The survey (2019-21) suggests that the TFR is low in low-populated areas.
Apart from Sikkim, other low-populated states or union territories like
Goa, Ladakh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands have a TFR of 1.3 compared to densely populated states like Uttar Pradesh with a TFR of 2.4, Bihar with a TFR of 2.4 and Madhya Pradesh with a TFR of 2.0.
Even though the Sikkim government has not come up with a clear explanation for the decline in the fertility rate, some medical professionals have attributed it to changing lifestyles.
“With more nuclear family setups coming, people do not want to have more children but instead concentrate on providing the best to the less. Late marriages are not uncommon and women are increasingly career-oriented now,” said a medical professional.
To buck the trend of the low TRF, the Sikkim government has started the Vatsalya scheme to provide financial assistance of ₹3 lakh to women for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment to help increase the fertility rate, apart from raising the maternity leave for government employees from six months to one year.
From April 2022 to July 2024, 779 women benefitted from the IVF scheme.
“The government is ready to grant an increment to employees with two children and a double increment if they have three children.
However, people are not taking the offer seriously,” said Golay.
Sikkim has also entered into a technical collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to enhance sexual and reproductive health (SRH) with a focus on improving the low fertility rate of Sikkim.
Golay expressed fear that the local population might be swamped by the floating population.
The government has made it mandatory for all migrant workers to register with district offices and asked house owners and business heads to register their tenants with the local administration within 30 days of renting the space.
“About 30,000 migrant workers are registered in Sikkim. However, during Covid-19 (pandemic), we found that more than 1 lakh migrants left the state,” said an official.
He stressed that registration of migrant workers was important for the safety and security in a sensitive border state.
