on population control

> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/world/asia/22india.html>
>
> > Ironically, the
> > targets of population control are the very people who are NOT the
> problem.
>
> But when women have multiple babies in quick succession, it does
> damage their health. So, humane, non-coercive population control (in
> the form of cash incentives for not having babies, for example),
> actually benefits women’s health, ceteris paribus. Is that not a good
> thing?
>
> ” “I want to tell you about our honeymoon package,” began Ms. Jadhav,
> an auxiliary nurse, during a recent house call on a new bride in this
> farming region [Satara] in the state of Maharashtra. Ms. Jadhav
> explained that the district government would pay 5,000 rupees, or
> about $106, if the couple waited to have children. Waiting, she
> promised, would allow them time to finish their schooling or to save
> money.
>
> “A farming district ringed with green hills, Satara has three million
> people. A 1997 survey found that almost a quarter of all women were
> marrying before the legal age of 18, while roughly 45 percent of all
> infants and young children in the district were malnourished.
>
> In response, the district began a campaign to reduce the number of
> child brides and more than 27,000 parents signed a written pledge
> agreeing not to allow their daughters to wed before age 18. Within a
> few years, the marrying age rose and the rate of child malnutrition
> dropped. Today, officials say about 15 percent of children are
> malnourished. But if couples were marrying a little later, they were
> usually producing a child within the first year of marriage, followed
> by another soon after. So in August 2009, Satara introduced its
> honeymoon package as an incentive to delay childbirths. So far, 2,366
> couples have enrolled.
>
> “The response has been good,” said Dr. Archana Khade, a physician at
> the primary health care center in the village of Kahner. “But the
> money is a secondary thing. It’s about the other things, for better
> future prospects.”
>
> Now, health officials in other states have come to Satara to study the
> program. Every day, auxiliary nurses like Ms. Jadhav canvass villages
> to disseminate information about family planning and solicit new
> couples for the honeymoon package. In India, a new couple usually
> resides with the family of the groom and it is the older generation
> that represents Ms. Jadhav’s biggest challenge.
>
> “The first time I go, they always defy you,” she said. “They say, ‘No,
> we don’t want to do that.’ The older generation believes that the
> moment a couple gets married, they want a baby in their house.”
>
> On a recent afternoon, Ms. Jadhav and Dr. Khade made their pitch to a
> 20-year-old bride, who stared silently down as her mother-in-law
> hovered in an adjacent room of their farmhouse.
>
> “You can delay your first pregnancy,” Dr. Khade said. “Have you talked
> to your husband about family planning or when you want to have a
> child?”
>
> “He doesn’t want to have children early,” the bride answered, almost
> in a whisper.
>
> “Do you think your in-laws will be happy with your decision?” Dr. Khade
> asked.
>
> The young bride was silent. Her in-laws did not know that she was
> already using birth-control pills.
>
> Many experts emphasize that easing India’s population burden will
> require a holistic response centered on improving health services and
> teaching about a full range of contraception.
>
> [...]
>
> In Satara, the birthrate has fallen to about 1.9 children per family,
> partly because of the honeymoon package, with many women opting for
> sterilization after their second child.”
>
> Full: <
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/world/asia/22india.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

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