Re: [IAC#RG] Definition of "Hindu"

On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 6:18 PM, Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com> wrote:

If a monogamist Hindu family is ever limited to 2 children by law, should the family of a polygamist Muslim with 4 wives be limited to 2 children or 8 children ?
,
Sarbajit

Are there enough Muslims with 4 wives for this to be a burning problem?

I am also not certain population control is possible in humane ways. We have had several (and ongoing) disasters with bulk deals with NGOs and such which are complete violations of reproductive rights as well as horrendous nightmares in unhygienic barnyard surgeries.

I admit I have not given this much thought, but to me, population in itself doesn't seem to be a crisis issue (though we are a huge country) - population is naturally tapering, and I have concerns about drastic declines in population being engineered for several reasons of national interest.

For example, at the moment, we have the largest population of "young people" and birth rates are already declining faster than expected (though we haven't reached goals, we are ahead of schedule on when we had imagined we would reach them).

The children (0-6 age group) also have some of the worst sex ratios - something I instinctively believe is related to the dropping ratio - people no longer want more kids than they can afford, and I believe this leads to greater desire for gender selection - to get that "boy" at first (and only) shot.

However, this may be untrue and I don't have any factual basis for this guess, beyond observations of human behavior making it seem a strong possibility. Needless to say, a worsening sex ratio will be a far worse catastrophe than overpopulation.

What is more concrete is that in another 20 years, we will start having more old people than young. Combine this with India's drastically increasing economic inequality, it is a genocide waiting to happen, as younger people with limited means will be burdened with a disproportionate elderly population. We ain't no Japan, where the "poor" still have a home and television. And yet Japan too has started raising the alarm on unsustainable economic inequality and humanitarian issues for the elderly.

With this in mind, I think the natural decline the population seems to be experiencing should not be accelerated in dramatic ways.

There are strong corelations with poverty, restricted women's rights (and thus power to choose), lack of open dialogue on contraception and high fertility (Muslims and dalits are also disproportionately more poor). These could be addressed with education and economic justice leading to more sustainable and empowering family choices without imposing any.

hope that makes sense.

Vidyut