Changed call for family planning across the world

Dr Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao

Sixty years is too long a period for any issue to remain static and the call for family planning is no exception. It was in mid 1960s that world understood the problem of population explosion and WHO offered family planning as an option for controlling the population. Then being the developing nations the China and India, first two rankers in population, took up the family size control in right earnest. While the second ranker India took the option of calling for a two kid norm and campaigned under “we two-our two” slogan it also made intensive drive for free family planning operations for both men and women. Governments then offered incentive increments for salaried employees for undergoing tubectomy or vasectomy. On the other hand, the first ranker China, being a single party dictatorial country, went with compulsory single child norm. World organisations hailed those efforts to control the population and saving the world from population burden.

Now the experts heading those international organisations are giving a call for increasing the family size in the name of saving the world which is slowly getting old. They complain declining population across the nations and predicting the negative impact of declining populations and are calling for new norm of “more kids for each family”. Though the issue was not taken seriously at the national level in India, some of the Chief Ministers recently gave a call for more kids in the interest of their states. The Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin gave the call to have near 16 kids in each family as that will increase the population of the state and offer more number of seats for his state in the Lok Sabha as and when the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats is done. This is more of politically interested call rather than with genuine concern for the declining birth rate. The Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu’s call was more realistic as he wanted a three kid norm for each family, as the decreased population growth is likely to burden the country with more aged and unproductive population. To confirm his commitment for his call of more than 2 kids for the family Chandrababu Naidu government has passed the bill to amend the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj and AP Municipal Act removing the restriction on those having more than two children from contesting the local body elections. This is more pragmatic action as it was the same Chandrababu Naidu in his earlier stint as CM in 1994 brought the Act incorporating the “two child norm” to disqualify the persons from local body fray.

China, worried on the negative impact of their strict one child policy for over six decades, has again adopted the coercive policy of more kids for family. The Chinese couples are tracked by the officials of newly created ministry regarding their plan to have kids. The concerned officials visit the homes of the couples and take their commitment for the first child at the earliest. The couples are given free prenatal vitamins and are monitored for pregnancy. Upon delivery, as per the new guidelines, the Chinese couples have to upload the photograph along with the new born into the government data bank.   Much before the couples made their plans for the kid’s upbringing, education etc. the Chinese ministry is chasing them to go for second child. This policy of pushing over the young population is being opposed by the women as they feel the Chinese communist party rulers are treating them as machines and not as humans. The older generations are coming out on social media pouring out their heart about the hardships they faced during strict one child norm. Many of them still remember the times they were punished when they became pregnant, inadvertently, for the second time. Those who were punished then are now demanding compensation for their past hardships.

Russia, the other Communist country, has announced its intention to create a separate ‘ministry of sex’ with specific mandate to find out and implement methods for increasing the population of the country which is declining at an alarming rate. The ministry which is yet to take a shape is reportedly contemplating many ways to encourage families to have more kids. One proposal with the ministry is to shut down the internet facility to families and even switching off lights between 10 pm and 2 am to promote intimacy of the couples. The Russian ministry of sex has broached the possibility of funding the first dates in order to promote relationships and also sponsor the wedding, first night hotel stays for the couples, who promise to produce more than three kids.

The next question the societies are facing is whether the women are ready to have more babies as desired by their governments. During the last six decades the education among the females increased across the globe and their employment opportunities improved. The women are more career oriented now rather than the sticking to the traditional house hold responsibilities of earlier generation, including the child bearing, even if lucrative incentives are offered. The mentality of women has undergone lot of change even in traditional societies like that of China and India. Motherhood is no more the dream of a young girl, but the romantic sex fulfilling relation is the dream. Even the elders are not ready to compel them to have children as the individuality, freedom to take a decision on their own has taken over the other societal norms. The western life style that involves the legal separation is now followed by the Asian societies and in these countries also children are seen more a burden for their future relationships.

The high financial cost involved in raising the child, juggling motherhood and career are the other potential deterrents quoted by women for rejecting the governmental proposals for more kids. The Chinese fear that the new three children policy may result in women revolting against communist governments as there was already a social media movement building up in certain provinces saying that “we are not like women who were born in 1970s to follow the dictates of the government. Whether to have kids or not is a private issue and the governments should not peep into their personal lives is the final word of many young Chinese women.

So the new family planning call is not going to be a smooth affair. Just as the family planning call of 1960s to limit the family and help the nation from the burden high population received the resistance then and was surmounted through a systematic campaign, cajoling of the men and women through incentives and some soft threats of withdrawal of the social benefits. The new call for the family planning of 3 or more kids, to offset the declining demographic dividend, also needs a carefully crafted campaign.