According to this article from London, certain people in India are becoming proponents of a rather novel way to stop an impending population crisis:
Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has called the country to redouble its efforts to bring electricity to the rural population so these people can plug in TV sets and watch late-night soap operas rather than have sex."If there is electricity in every village then people will watch TV until late night and then fall asleep. They won't get a chance to produce children," Azad said. "When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies." He added: "Don't think that I am saying this in a lighter vein. I am serious. TV will have a great impact. It's a great medium to tackle the problem ... 80 percent of population growth can be reduced through TV."
This just cracks me up. Most couples I know are resorting to scheduling, um, their "get-togethers" these days, in between children, jobs and whatnot. Maybe everyone--at least everyone here in the States--just needs to turn off the t.v. more...!
Deepa is a wife, mother, writer and she sometimes masquerades as a lawyer as well. She revels in friendship, humor, champagne, and laughing at herself--often. She never ever reads US Magazine, thinks Rushdie is a genius, wishes she could write one sentence as funny as "Arrested Development," and lives in the Bay Area with her motley crew. She can be reached at deviswithbabies@gmail.com
classic Indian government resopnse, which is to say: ineffective!
i believe it! the minute we got the tv out of our room, things spiced up so why not vice versa?!
Things are always easier in the "motherland" :)
Ha, how random/funny
Hei,
Its easy to dismiss any good idea as funny, but if someone wants to think, which I think Azad has done (unlike most Indian politicians), we need to appreaciate the idea. However, what he is talking about is not a feasible solution in the normal run. Electricity availability will solve many other problems too :-)
Vignesh
This is not nearly as crazy as it sounds. In Brazil TV was introduced on a state by state basis over a number of years. There was a very strong correlation between falling fertility rates and TV. Providing power and TV is by far the easiest way to control population growth. In part because you don't have to pitch it as a population control program. People simply want to do things other than have sex.