India’s population boom tells a story of wealth inequality

The difference in birth rates across the country is stirring debate about how to apportion government spending, write Gerry Shih and Karishma Mehrotra

Parveen Begum, who has had 11 children, tends to her latest child as her extended family huddles around her (Washington Post photo by Karishma Mehrotra)

In recent weeks, two pregnant women in India – Vaishnavi Logabiran and Malika Begum – gave birth to a boy and a girl, adding two newcomers to an Indian population of 1.4 billion that UN officials say is now overtaking China’s to become the world’s largest.

The babies were born weeks apart. But in many ways, they were born into two different Indias. While India’s overall population is no longer skyrocketing – and in fact it’s quickly flattening – UN experts have projected that sometime this month it will finally exceed China’s gradually shrinking population (though they can’t say precisely when). This demographic milestone, however, masks dramatically divergent trajectories inside India, with fertility rates varying sharply from state to state.