More deaths than births recorded in Tamil Nadu

Compiled by ARFA YUNUS, C.ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN
THE Tamil Nadu state in India has the highest number of districts where death rates are higher than birth rates in the country, Makkal Osai reported.
In India as a whole, the districts with lower than replacement birth rates has gone from seven in 2019 to 49 in 2021.
Seventeen of the 49 districts are from Tamil Nadu, which had zero such areas in 2019.
South Indian states are showing more districts with lower birth rates than deaths, the report said.
But the two most populous states in India – Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh – are showing the opposite trend, with most or even all of its districts recor­ding higher birth rates.
According to the report, these statistics have deep political implications, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu natio­na­list BJP party keen to redraw parliamentary maps according to these trends.
Most southern states are wary of these moves as their influence in the national parliament will be affected.
(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)

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