Nandita Bajaj

Nandita Bajaj

Nandita Bajaj is the Executive Director of Population Balance, a US nonprofit that works to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks the human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet. She produces and co/hosts two podcasts: OVERSHOOT and Beyond Pronatalism, and has delivered over 100 presentations globally. She is also a Senior Lecturer for the Institute for Humane Education’s graduate programs at Antioch University,  where she teaches courses on ecological ethics, pronatalism, and overshoot. She has published several journal articles and book chapters, and her work has appeared in major news outlets including The GuardianThe Toronto StarThe Washington PostThe Indian Express, and Ms. Magazine.

Why pronatalism won’t reverse birth-rate decline

Slower growth — and ultimately zero growth — is good for people and the planet, but not for those in power, who for millennia relied on women’s reproductive labor to produce more workers, consumers, and taxpayers. Today’s Trump-era and even progressive pronatalist policies try to reverse the trend, but there’s a reason why they won’t work.

July 13, 2026

‘Progressive pronatalism’ is an oxymoron: How arguments buying into the low-fertility panic fail women

As concern over falling birth rates spreads across the political spectrum, pronatalist ideas are finding new audiences. But protecting reproductive freedom and respecting planetary limits require rejecting the politics of population growth.

July 6, 2026

The most appropriate response to falling birthrates? Embrace them

As governments push costly pronatalist schemes to boost birthrates, the real solution, argues Nandita Bajaj, is to embrace declining fertility, expand women’s reproductive agency, and redesign economies for equity and ecological survival.

June 23, 2026

Never Mention Population

Bringing up the Earth’s growing human population (and its associated impacts) is not something you typically do in polite circles. If you do introduce the topic of overpopulation, even among staunch environmentalists, you risk being called all sorts of undignified names.

September 12, 2024