RSS chief urges three-child families

NEW DELHI: The head of India’s powerful Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) said that Indian families must have three children each, warning about the long-term risks from the current trend of declining birth rates.

Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the RSS that is the ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, said the population must remain “controlled, yet sufficient”.

Speaking at a lecture to mark the 100 years of the founding of the RSS on Thursday, Bhagwat suggested that “in the national interest, every family should have three children and limit themselves to that”.

Bhagwat too said birth rates were declining across religious groups.