This ubiquitous sign without any text is the most well known image in India. It stands for:
One of India’s great success stories voluntary family planning that restricted the growth of population to manageable levels. Voluntary, except for a short while, when Indira Gandhi had declared a state of emergency and her son Sanjay Gandhi drove the state to effect forced and indiscriminate sterilisation which eventually boomeranged on the mother and son duo.
My grandparents and their children inevitably had large families, ranging from seven to four children each, with one late marriage that produced only two. My parents had four children. Most people that I know in my generation, have restricted their families to two children and in my case too, we would have had two had medical advice post our first child’s delivery not suggested that we restrict it to one. I am glad that we got that advice, as we have been able to provide our son with the best of every possible facility in growing up which would have been difficult had we been forced to share our resources with two children.
Today, the situation is fraught with costs of educating children, apart from finding good institutions to send them to, and many young married couples prefer to either be DINKs (Double Income No Kids) or DISCs (Double Income Single Kid) because, a single income family, at least, in cities, is simply too expensive to manage. And, I am also seeing many young people not wanting to get married and take the responsibility of parenting.
So, from my own family’s example, of my grandparents having seven children to my parents with four and mine with one child, to that child being without any children, I have seen first hand, the reduction in size of the Indian family which is not unusual.
This is my contribution to the Weekly Loose Bloggers’ Consortium (LBC) endeavour to post on one single topic every Friday. Today’s topic has been suggested by Maria. I hope that you enjoyed reading my contribution.