Monday, July 25, 2011

Population Control in India

Along with my research on families here in North India, I have been looking at the dichotomy of continuing families through IVF and stopping reproduction through Population Control. There has long been a sense in India that it is overpopulated. This belief is shared by the majority of the public. I always make it a point to ask everyone I speak with how they feel about the population in India. In many instances people bring this up in conversation without me even asking and without fail they always tell me that India has too many people and its not good. Recently I was shocked to hear health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad's solution to population problems. He said that India should improve late-night programming so that people watch TV instead of having sex. “If there are good late-night shows, people will watch TV till late at night. They won’t get a chance to have children. With no good programmes and no electricity in many villages, what are people to do?” he said. There has also been talk about imposing the one child law that China is under but we have yet to see that happen. Other population control ideas include marrying after the age of 30 and using “aggressive compulsion and not forced sterilisation” to convince people to have fewer children. They have also  increased the number of family planning programs here in Northern India.

I have found that many of our parents generation come from households where they had numerous siblings. Today most families have shrunk to one or two children. There is this ideal that if one has children, they should be able to provide for them, and provide well. I also just recently discovered that in India it is taboo to not have children at all, but it is also taboo to have too many children. After inquiring into this idea futher I discovered that the reason people look down on having a lot of children is because they feel that it is a sign that you are struggling to provide. The more children you have, the more helping hands you have to contribute to family funds. It is a symbol of status.

India supports 17.2 per cent of the world’s population on 2.4 per cent of the world’s land. Through my interviews I have found that many of the people see population as what is causing the poverty and disparity in wealth as well as unavailability of jobs. However after speaking with a professor here in Delhi who has been researching population, she informed me that there is really no validaty to these speculations. On the contrary, This notion grew out of the 19th century scarcity of food. In fact, India's population grew slower during the 19th century than Europe. We cannot blame the population size for the scarcity. Today India's economy is flourishing and there is no food shortage, yet this concept of overpopulation still exists and is widely accepted. She also indicated that this notion of cretailing childbirth is taking effect all over the country as we see family sizes dramatically shrinking. Who's to say that China's one child policy has affected their economy in a good way. I find it interesting that we see this idea of overpopulation continuing to persist in the forefront of people's minds. Why do they find the solution to all their problems in shrinking family units?

Perceptions of Public and Private Space

This entry was inspired by something that Megan said about why is it the case that in India it is innappropriate to kiss in public but it is fine to pass gas, or burp. My answer to this question is that India has a different way of interpreting public and private space. It is important to recognize that in our American culture there are definite distinctions  made in what is proper public space behaviors and what is proper behavior in private space. This is the same for materials. Mary Douglas' theory of pollution is an interesting one to consider at this juncture. She makes the point that dirt is only classified as being dirty when it is matter out of place. In other words when there
is dirt on a freshly cleaned floor then it is considered dirty. However, the dirt in the garden is not seen in the same light. It is considered soil because it is in its right and useful place. When it is out of order, it creates conflict. This is interesting to consider when it comes to the cross-cultural perspectives. When I told many of my friends back home in the US that I was going to India, their response was intriguing. My boss immediately replied that, “India is a dirty filthy country. I would never want to visit that place.” Several other friends mentioned similar concerns that India was dirty, corrupted, and the people smelled bad. In our foreign perspective we see a country that is dirty because to us, matter is out of place to where we think it should be. That's is when we start feeling conflicted and get hostile with our cutlure shock. We think that people should not go to the bathroom in the open where everyone can see them. This is “dirty” because they are not going in what we designate as an appropriate 'private' place. The sewage system should be underground hidden from view, not in the open where we can smell and see it. Again we interpret that as matter out of place. The trash everywhere on the streets should be in a waste basket or sack of some kind. This should be put in its proper place that is separate from what is clean. Conversely, India looks at America and feels we should not be displaying so much public affection, that should be done in a private sphere. Our understanding and perceptions of what is approriate in private and public differ. India has adapted to its resources, population, and values. These men going to the bathroom in the fields (public) really have no where else to go. There are no public bathrooms nearby and even if there were I wouldn't blame them for going in the field (have ya seen those bathrooms). They have adapted to their environment. Outsiders frequently getting involved in conversations is another example of publicly acceptable space. I was shocked to find in gynecology offices where I interviewed that there were two doctors with two separate patients at one desk. There was no privacy with what they were discussing with patients. What we feel should be private has had to adapt here because of the limited space and amount of people. The man bathing in the gutter of the street did so because that is what he must do for survival with his limited resources. The trash on the sides of street is not perceived as being matter out of place to many of the people. There are no other places to put it so its in its proper place which is the gutter. When I spoke with some Hindu friends about how in America most cows and dogs are penned in or tied up, they had a look of horror cross their faces. "This is not good," one exclaimed, "they should be free to roam where they please." Cows being in public space is appropriate from the Indian perspective. Understanding and interpreting space is so fascinating to me especially in the India context. Maybe more Americans should start farting in public and kissing in private :)