'Modern concept of privacy has...': Zoho's Sridhar Vembu on falling birth rates

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has sparked a debate on declining birth rates, linking the phenomenon to modern concepts of privacy. In a tweet on Saturday, he wrote, "The interesting observation is that traditional people who live in large family clusters and have no private space to themselves, produce babies. But sophisticated people who want and need and have plenty of private space to themselves do not produce babies."

Vembu argued that daily close connections with family and friends might be the key to sustaining the drive to have children. "The modern concept of privacy (unknown in my lower middle-class childhood) has undercut this drive to procreate," he noted, adding, "In other words, people who are surrounded by other people want to produce more people!"

His remarks drew mixed reactions online. A social media user named Lokesha responded, "This may be true for some remote cases, but as a new parent and surrounded by many such new parents, our major reasons for not having many babies is economics, affordability of education, healthcare, and good life."

Vembu pushed back, citing his observations from rural India. "In the small village communities that surround me, people have no economic security (no stable income), health care is far away, schools are far away, people live in tiny homes and yet they have babies. And urban India is largely drawing on the kids born here for various jobs," he wrote.

This is not the first time Vembu has voiced concerns about demographic shifts. In January, he pointed to Japan and China as examples of nations struggling with declining birth rates. "Japan reached its peak technological prowess around 1990. 'Japan as the number 1 economy, Japan overtaking the US' were all serious topics then. What happened? Serious demographic decline," he wrote.

The former Zoho CEO argued that China's rapid urbanization, extreme work-life imbalance, and loss of traditional culture have contributed to its own "demographic bust." "Demographic decline, once it sets in motion, is hard to reverse. I don’t know any country that has reversed it," he stated.

Vembu, who embraces rural living, believes that reversing this trend requires a shift in societal priorities. "I want to pursue economic development that is pro-babies. In the long term, nothing else really matters!"