Anit Thapa, the chief executive of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, urged Indian Gorkha writers from across the country to create awareness about the declining population of the community.
Thapa was addressing India Gorkha writers at the centenary celebration of Nepali Sahitya Sammelan on Saturday.
The literary body, established on May 25, 1924, has made significant contributions not just to Nepali literature but also culture.
Darjeeling is the literary and cultural capital of the Gorkhas in India.
“I am speaking with data. In our hills, we are having to merge booths (election booths) because of the declining population. Our population is declining and you will not find enough people to read your writings,” Thapa told the gathering at the Sammelan hall in Darjeeling.
Thapa urged the writers to “write on the issue”.
“Our language will survive only if the community survives,” said Thapa.
He repeated the message at a function of the Rai sub-community of the Gorkhas in Mirik on Sunday.
The neighbouring hill state of Sikkim, which has a predominant Nepali speaking population, has recently taken up a number of initiatives to increase the population of the state after it registered the lowest total fertility rate (TRF) in the country for the year 2019-20.
TRF is the average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime.
A comparative study done by Vimal Khawash, professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, some years back suggests that the share of hill population in Darjeeling district has continuously gone down over the years.
The hill areas of Darjeeling district comprise Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Kurseong regions. The plains of Darjeeling district comprise basically the Siliguri region.
Khawash’s studies revealed that while the share of hill populace in the entire district was 72 per cent in 1951, it went down to 65 per cent by 1961, 54 per cent by 1981 and 49 per cent by 2011.
This basically means that the population growth in the plains area of Darjeeling district was higher than that of the hills.
The population of Darjeeling hills, according to the 2011 census stands at around 9.01 lakh, while the total district population stands at 18.4 lakh.
Sources said that the leadership in the GTA is also “concerned” about these figures and looking at various options to address the issue.
In neighbouring Sikkim, the state government headed by chief minister P.S. Tamang (Golay) announced ₹3 lakh for women for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and 365 days of maternity leave for female administrative employees to encourage a rise in the TFR.
According to the national health survey, the TFR was 2.75 in 1998-99 in Sikkim but it came down to 1.1 in 2019-20, making it the lowest in the country.
In 2020, the national TFR was 2.05.
The Sikkim government has also announced an additional increment to its employees if he or she has three children.
Sikkim has around 73,500 state government employees, including those who work in PSUs or on an ad hoc basis while its entire population is around 7 lakh.
Experts maintain that no one particular reason can be assigned for this drop in population as social, economic and cultural factors play a role in influencing family planning.
“For example, the increase in population figures in some places is also a reflection of migration of population to that particular area. Similarly, lack of migration would mean no steep rise in the population figures,” said an expert.
Some studies have also pointed out that some working couples preferred one child.
Given the complexity of the reasons, the Sikkim government recently held a meeting by “bringing together experts from around the country to engage in brainstorming sessions to help understand the underlying cause”.
Soumen Nag, a social researcher in Siliguri, had earlier told this newspaper that such an initiative was necessary to keep different communities alive. “We have heard about many other communities who experienced similar problems over the years. It is important to ensure that the TFR remains above 2.1, the standard replacement rate for a community to reproduce itself,” said Nag.