India overtakes China as the world’s most populous country. The South Asian giant will have, when the year ends, three million more than Chinawhich has been the most populous country in the world for almost three centuries and which for the first time in 60 years is losing population after decades of ‘zero’ birth policies.

A fact that he fears could affect his economy. Now, the Asian giant is starting to encourage births for fear of losing its global hegemony with the fall in labor. Jorge Fonseca, honorary professor of International Economics at the UCM, assures that “India and other countries will replace it in the production of goods lower added value and lower wages”.

However, the population reduction will also bring positive effects, and this is what the expert points out: “It will reduce your need for resources and make it more economically sustainable. and environmentally.” Still, China does not want to see its population age and has already introduced incentives to promote fertility.

It is not the only country in the world that does so. In fact, it is a widespread practice, despite the fact that “some of those policies to promote increases in the birth rate implicitly encourage women to leave the labor market and, basically, return to a very traditional role, which is to have children,” as expressed by Jaume Nadal, representative of the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine.

By contrast, other nations try to reduce their high birth rates by arguing a negative environmental impact. “Only 10% of the population is the one who consumes 50% of greenhouse gases greenhouse, which means that by reducing fertility in countries where fertility is high, it will not be possible to stop climate change,” said the expert.

Control of demography generates great confusion among the population, according to the latest report from the United Nations Population Fund. Even more so in women, who feel instrumentalized. “Women are sending a message and the message is that their bodies should not be the subject of public policy for the sake of demographic objectives that go far beyond their own well-being and the achievement of their own goals in life”, Nadal has exposed. Demographic changes should not be feared, says the UN, they must be anticipated and planned around, always with gender equality.