Voiceover artist Caitanaya Tan expressed her views on a rumoured government-run dating service, saying that a shift in perspective is needed to raise Singapore’s total fertility rate (TFR).
In a post on May 4, the content creator referenced a Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) survey gathering feedback for a potential dating service, Firstdate, which offers free meals for first dates.
This comes amid Singapore’s TFR dropping to a historic low of 0.87 in 2025.
Ms Tan clarifies that while she doesn’t “come even remotely close to understanding how to run a nation”, she believes a different approach may be necessary.
“It’s not because people don’t want to date. And it’s not because people cannot afford to buy a meal,” she says.
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Ms Tan noted that Singaporeans are often raised in environments where “fear is used to guide behaviour”, citing a common phrase directed at children: “Do this or else.”
“Over time, as we grew up and started making our own adult money, we realised ‘or else’ is not always true. And suddenly, the fear stops working,” she adds.
Having children becomes a duty
She explains that younger generations have become “bolder”, pursuing personal and career growth in unconventional ways, which has led to millennials being perceived as “lazy” or lacking “loyalty”.
Ms Tan argues that the encouragement to have kids feels more like “another instruction, another expectation, another thing that we are supposed to do or else”, adding that people should have the right to choose not to have children.
In her view, having children has become a perceived societal duty, or something one does for “validation, for societal approval, to meet a timeline”, rather than out of a desire to build a family.
“You don’t fix birth rates by making people date. You fix it by making people feel safe enough to choose the life they actually want,” Ms Tan says.
“It shouldn’t be transactional is what I’m saying.”
