India’s New Birth Control Plan — Watch Television

India has a population problem. With a smaller land area than China, India threatens to surpass the Chinese in population by 2030 when it has somewhere around 1.4 billion people.

That will make for a crowded country and all the problems associated with it.

The Chinese have successfully implemented their one-child program. Nevertheless, the emphasis on abortion as a form of birth control has always been controversial. The one-party, generally homogenous Chinese society can achieve that. The democratic and pluralistic Indian society has a harder challenge.

Now, the Indian government thinks it has an idea.

There are many areas in rural India where electricity is still absent. The birthrates are high in those areas as well.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has called for a new effort of electrification in India’s rural enclaves. He thinks this will reduce the population growth.

“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. When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies,” Azad said.

Azad wants everyone to know he is serious. While at first glance, electrification as birth control sounds ridiculous, Azad may be right.

When television was introduced in the United States, birthrates skyrocketed. However, those were the post-World War II years, and a lot of other societal factors were in play. One thing for certain, as people become more affluent, the population rate declines. Electricity opens the way to a higher standard of living.