India Tries Using Cash Bonuses to Slow Birthrates

India is the second most populous nation in the world, expected to overtake China in the next decade. Analysts study the two neighbor nations for how political systems and population policies contribute to growth or economic wealth: Nations with low fertility rates are generally wealthier, while younger populations are described as more productive. Fertility rates, varying throughout India, are highest in the poorest states. “Experts say far too many rural women wed as teenagers, usually in arranged marriages, and then have babies in quick succession – a pattern that exacerbates poverty and spurs what demographers call ‘population momentum’ by bunching children together,” reports Jim Yardley for the New York Times. One pilot program encourages contraception, paying couples to delay pregnancies. Any national planning must overcome memories of previous family planning programs that included coercion as well as in-laws’ impatience for grandchildren. – YaleGlobal