Recently Govt. of Kerala drafted a bill which will enable the govt to put anyone in jail who has more than two kids. ( Link is here ) Many thought its a necessary step to tame the population growth. This new law might give us the impression that, sex is the root cause of population which is the whole point of that IDEA's 3G ad campaign. It gives us the impression that, the population growth is due to unplanned pregnancies. Well, that is a reason, but not the only reason.
Our population growth is not because people are horny and govt is not restricting them from having sex. The population bubble is a natural course for a country, and its merely the success story of Indian health Department.
When a country is poor, i.e the people of the country are poor and hardly making enough money to stay away from hunger, both the birth rate and death rate will be high. Its called the first stage of demography. When people can hardly eat, forget about health care and having labor in hospitals. Due to malnutrition and lack of vaccination ( people are not educated enough to know the importance of vaccination), no body is sure, how long a child will survive without cursed by a deadly disease. To improve the probability of having kids, couples tend to give birth to more children, and pray god that at least some of them survive. This can be seen in the pre-independence era of India.
Once, the vaccinations are introduced and people earning more and started knowing the value of nutrition, the high death rate will decline and due to old beliefs (Yes, humans have ideological inertia) the birth rate remains the same. This is the time population growth rate will be very high. This is the second stage of demography, high birth rate and low death rate.
Once, people are sure that their children will survive, the birth rate will go down slowly. This is called third stage, low birth rate and low death rate and the population finally stabilizes.
(More about demographic transitions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_transition )
Its only one of theories of population growth. One theory estimated that there is direct relation between population and in which sector the country depends for finances. Like, a farm owner wont feel having more children as burden but treats them as assets, because when they grew up, he does not have to employ extra labor to work in his farm. It sounds good, but more children means , the land of the father is divided among more and each child will be poor than his father, leading poverty.
And also there is direct relation between , the age at which the woman gets married and number of kids. And also between educational qualification of parents to the number of their children ( we dont see a postgraduated couple having half a dozen kids in this generation ). Just compare the literacy rates and population growth rate in North Indian states and south Indian states.
The bottom line is, temptation towards sex is not only the reason for the population we have. If govt dictates how many kids its citizen can have, its just few steps behind becoming totalitarian. Next what? Will govt pair up couples based on DNA so that the offspring will be strong? Seems, congress didnt learn its lessons from the policies of sanjay gandhi in emergency period.
In the name of controlling population we cant force people to buy 3G phones or force them to watch more TV or drop a hydrogen bomb . It should be done by educating people on various aspects. Too much interference into private life of citizens is against liberalism. The one or none policy of China is leading them to have more old age people in coming years than workable population. When we want to compete with them, we should be wise enough to grasp lessons from their mistakes.
Our population growth is not because people are horny and govt is not restricting them from having sex. The population bubble is a natural course for a country, and its merely the success story of Indian health Department.
When a country is poor, i.e the people of the country are poor and hardly making enough money to stay away from hunger, both the birth rate and death rate will be high. Its called the first stage of demography. When people can hardly eat, forget about health care and having labor in hospitals. Due to malnutrition and lack of vaccination ( people are not educated enough to know the importance of vaccination), no body is sure, how long a child will survive without cursed by a deadly disease. To improve the probability of having kids, couples tend to give birth to more children, and pray god that at least some of them survive. This can be seen in the pre-independence era of India.
Once, the vaccinations are introduced and people earning more and started knowing the value of nutrition, the high death rate will decline and due to old beliefs (Yes, humans have ideological inertia) the birth rate remains the same. This is the time population growth rate will be very high. This is the second stage of demography, high birth rate and low death rate.
Once, people are sure that their children will survive, the birth rate will go down slowly. This is called third stage, low birth rate and low death rate and the population finally stabilizes.
(More about demographic transitions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_transition )
Its only one of theories of population growth. One theory estimated that there is direct relation between population and in which sector the country depends for finances. Like, a farm owner wont feel having more children as burden but treats them as assets, because when they grew up, he does not have to employ extra labor to work in his farm. It sounds good, but more children means , the land of the father is divided among more and each child will be poor than his father, leading poverty.
And also there is direct relation between , the age at which the woman gets married and number of kids. And also between educational qualification of parents to the number of their children ( we dont see a postgraduated couple having half a dozen kids in this generation ). Just compare the literacy rates and population growth rate in North Indian states and south Indian states.
The bottom line is, temptation towards sex is not only the reason for the population we have. If govt dictates how many kids its citizen can have, its just few steps behind becoming totalitarian. Next what? Will govt pair up couples based on DNA so that the offspring will be strong? Seems, congress didnt learn its lessons from the policies of sanjay gandhi in emergency period.
In the name of controlling population we cant force people to buy 3G phones or force them to watch more TV or drop a hydrogen bomb . It should be done by educating people on various aspects. Too much interference into private life of citizens is against liberalism. The one or none policy of China is leading them to have more old age people in coming years than workable population. When we want to compete with them, we should be wise enough to grasp lessons from their mistakes.
