“The Population Explosion Struggle in India’s Poorest State of Bihar”

Jakarta –

India is now the country with the largest population in the world, shifting China. Even though India is considered quite successful in terms of population control, there are several regions that are still struggling with population explosions.

Married by her parents at the age of 14, mother of seven Jaimala Devi continued to have children because her husband insisted she could only stop getting pregnant after she gave birth to two boys.

Devi’s story takes place a lot in Bihar, India’s poorest and also the fastest growing state. In the region live 127 million people, the population is roughly the same as Mexico.

“Having seven children and managing everything myself is really driving me crazy,” Devi told AFP. He is now 30 years old and has never left his hometown.

“I think we will be comfortable with one or two children. But we had a daughter first, and because of that we have seven,” he said.

Devi, her five daughters and two sons live in a dilapidated one-room shack, unadorned except for a small television, an old fan and a few posters of Hindu gods on the unplastered walls.

Devi’s husband, Subhash, is away for most of the year, sending off his meager earnings as an unskilled shopkeeper in the capital New Delhi.

Many fathers leave the state to find work elsewhere but view long absences from home and the struggle to feed their children a worthy sacrifice for a chance at future affluence.

“Having more children is still seen as a way to get more income-generating family members,” Parimal Chandra, head of the non-profit Population Foundation of India (PFI), told AFP.

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The insistence of many men to have sons reflects a cultural expectation that they will support their parents even after marrying and having children of their own.

“Giving a son means respect and pride for the family and the mother,” said Chandra.

On the other hand, daughters are usually seen as burdensome and expensive due to the tradition of the wedding dowry being paid by the bride’s parents.

Parents in poorer households often try to escape the responsibilities of daughters by marrying them off early, as was the case with Devi’s marriage as a teenager.

The average woman in India now gives birth to just two children, down from a peak of six in the 1960s, due to better maternal health care and rising living standards.

But Bihar has long lagged behind economically and its much higher birth rate – an average of around three children per mother – reflects some of India’s worst rates of malnutrition, child mortality, education and access to medical care.

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(kna/vyp)