The Sikkim government has decided to provide incentives to Sikkimese mothers willing to bear more than two children in order to buck the rapidly declining trend in the rate of fertility in the Himalayan state.

Expressing concern at the low rate of fertility in the state, which stands at 1.1 against the national rate of 2.0, Sikkim chief minister P. S. Tamang (Golay) said the government was in the process of finding out the reasons for the sharp fall. “If we don’t act now, there will be a problem in the future,” he said on the sidelines of a government programme at Namcheybong in Pakyong district on Tuesday night.

The chief minister said the government would soon come out with a notification on the incentive scheme for child-bearing mothers in the same manner mothers had been incentivised in the past to bear fewer children as part of the family planning policy.

“What we will do now is, a notification will have to be issued, give those (mothers) with more than two children an increment in the case of government employees and incentives, the exact amount is yet to be decided on, to non-government employees,” he said.

The fertility incentive to be announced by the government would only benefit the holders of certificate of identification (CoI), which is a domicile document, and not all ordinary residents of Sikkim.

“CoI is a legal document which allows its holder to claim the rights and benefits, including access to government jobs, which ordinary residents are not entitled to. It also allows holders to avail the services of various government schemes, scholarships and for application of rations cards in the state,” said a senior official.

According to the National Family Health Survey 2019- 2021, Sikkim’s fertility rate is the lowest in the country. From the fertility rate of 2.01 in 2009, it has come down to 1.1 now. The national fertility rate has also come down from 2.6 to 2.0 during the same period.

Golay’s Sikkim Krantikari Morcha government had taken a couple of steps last year to help increase the fertility rate by providing financial assistance of Rs 3 lakh to women for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment and by increasing the maternity leave for mothers holding government service from six months to one year.

Sikkim has an estimated population of about 6.80 lakh, making it the least populated state in the country. However, an unaccounted number of migrants is believed to be changing the demographic profile of the state, giving rise to the demand for the implementation of Inner-Line-Permit (ILP) in order to effectively check the illegal influx of outsiders into the state.