Stalin’s Advice to Immediately Have Babies is Thoughtless, Reckless and Won’t Work: Exec Dir PFI

2 months ago 23

Stalin's advice to immediately have babies is thoughtless, reckless and won't work: Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. .......................................... In sharp and stinging criticism of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Stalin’s advice to newlyweds in his state “to immediately have babies”, as a response to the impending threat of delimitation, which is widely expected to happen next year, the Executive Director of the Population Foundation of India, has said its “thoughtless and reckless” adding it’s also “advice that will not work”. In a 18-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Poonam Muttreja says the Chief Minister’s statement reflects an attitude to women that is “orthodox, out of touch and ridiculous”. She called it “a step backward”. Poonam Muttreja said in an age when women are asserting their independence, wanting to be educated and seeking work and making their own choices, she is confident that the women of India will not heed Chief Minister Stalin’s advice. To help you follow the interview with Poonam Muttreja, I give below the main questions asked. Here they are:- 1) Yesterday Chief Minister Stalin publicly advised newlyweds in Tamil Nadu “to immediately have babies”. He presumably wants them to have as many as they can and as quickly as they can. This is his way of responding to the threat of delimitation. But in a country with a population of 1.4 billion, where the vast majority lives perilously close to poverty, is this wise advice or thoughtless and reckless? 2) Secondly, what does this reflect of the Chief Minister’s attitude to women? Is there a sense in which he is treating them as baby-producing factories rather than individuals with the right to choose and decide for themselves? 3) For the Chief Minister the problem is Tamil Nadu’s fertility rate which is said to be 1.4, substantially below the replacement rate. No doubt he wants to boost it but is this the right way of doing so? 4) This is not the first time with Chief Minister Stalin has spoken in this way. In October when he was talking about how Tamils traditionally have 16 types of wealth he said “(delimitation) has made us think that why shouldn’t we go for 16 children”. This is, therefore, not a one-off. It’s a well thought-out deliberate campaign on his part. 5) The truth is Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has also spoken in similar terms. Last year he called upon the people of Andhra Pradesh to give up family planning and have more children. He proposed a law to incentivize them. If this is beginning to look like the response of southern chief ministers to a declining population or to delimitation, as Executive Director of the Population Foundation of India what do you say to them? 6) My last question: if the people of Tamil Nadu decide to follow their Chief Minister’s advice and start having lots of babies immediately, how capable are they of bringing up large families and looking after them adequately which, in particular, means their education and health? 7) Is this the right response to delimitation? Join The Wire's Youtube Membership and get exclusive content, member-only emojis, live interaction with The Wire's founders, editors and reporters and much more. Memberships to The Wire Crew start at Rs 89/month. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWtJey46brNr7qHQpN6KLQ/join

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