Birth Rates and Upbringing of Children
Just last week China ended its famous “One-Child Policy” as a result of its rapidly aging population. The Chinese couples will now be allowed to have two children. India too on its part has been having its two children campaign, which was the first population control campaign in the world at its launch in the year 1950.
Globally most of the developed nations like United States, Japan, etc. and most of the European countries are facing multiple economic, social and cultural problems owing to aging population which is a result of lessened birth rates. Economically this has resulted in major cut down in productivity, wealth and has caused increase in spending on pensions and healthcare. Countries which record lower birth rates also face multiple problems relating to preserving their cultural and traditional values, and also face imbalanced and skewed demographics with respect to religion and gender. The recent issue of Middle Eastern immigrants in European countries is a classic example of this.
The problem of lessening of birth rates has arisen because trends like “Double Income Single Kid” (DISK) and “Double Income No Kid” (DINK) have been increasingly observed in the developed western societies and those societies that they influence.
A single child is likely to get extra-attention and added favors from parents especially when both are working. It may also prevent him or her from learning to share things with their near and dear ones which may likely to create problems for him or her in adjusting with the outside world.
With only one child per couple, two generations down the line, the children will be all on their own as they will be practically left with no relatives. Relations like uncles, aunties, nephews, nieces – maternal or paternal will simply vanish with just two generations of single children in family.
Having two or three kids may require the mothers to stay back to look after the kids. But under the financial pressures, upbringing of kids has been a largely ignored aspect which actually should get more of its due recognition. A recent report by India’s premier engineering institute – the Indian Institute of Technology published by Times of India – dated 11th October 2015 states that 50% of mothers of those students who made it to the IITs are homemakers. This fact certainly underlines the important role women homemakers play in family and that for nation building.
I vividly recollect multiple mentions and references to most of these points explained by Sadguru (Dr.) Aniruddha Bapu in his discourses. Summing it up, the young couples should give a thought for having more than one child.
|| Hari Om || || Shriram || || Ambadnya ||