{"id":17170,"date":"2013-02-25T15:24:48","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T20:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=17170"},"modified":"2013-02-25T15:27:34","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T20:27:34","slug":"banning-birth-control-at-behest-of-bodhu-bala-sena-will-roll-back-successful-family-planning-and-cause-sinhalababy-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=17170","title":{"rendered":"Banning Birth Control at Behest of Bodhu Bala Sena will roll back Successful Family Planning Leading to Unbearable Baby Boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ranga Jayasuriya<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nick Clegg, the British Deputy Prime Minister and the Liberal Party Leader once famously said if the Britons want to have more children, which is perfectly fine, but they should be able to afford them. That is plain talking. That may even be politically suicidal should it be said in this part of the world. Clegg\u2019s remarks were made with reference to families who have three to four kids, and who live off State benefits and still want to have more children. In pure economic terms, that amounts to abusing the welfare system to make an extra buck since the system adds an extra premium to your dole for every child you have. On the other hand, though it may be politically incorrect in the conventional eye, social scientists would reveal that those large \u2018benefit families\u2019 driven by a dependency culture are more than likely to fail in providing the right environment for the upbringing of their offspring.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Ministry of Health sent a circular to all government hospitals and private institutions, banning all irreversible family planning methods that control birth. Interestingly, the recent decision came after the Bodu Bala Sena, the controversial Sinhala Buddhist organization launched a series of protests and acts of sabotages against several family planning clinics that were managed by the Ministry of Health and designated NGOs. The monks of the Bodu Bala Sena also met with the President, during which they highlighted, among others, the \u2018existential threat\u2019 posed by birth control activities, which they alleged, are being carried out, targeting Sinhalese women, specifically.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To begin with, this column is not meant to argue for or against the government\u2019s decision. However, the complex problems that we are faced with at present calls for rational answers and not those driven by a heavy dose of emotions and short term political advantages.<\/p>\n

Family planning campaign<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka for its part has experienced population bulges from the 50s to the 70s, helped by the decline of the death rate – thanks to the Malaria eradication campaign, and the higher birth rate. In 1960, a labour force survey conducted by the then government and the International Labour Organization (ILO) had the premonitions of what was to follow in the subsequent decades. The survey revealed that 10% of the labour force was unemployed and a subsequent survey revealed that 42% of the population was under the age of 15, which left an immense burden on the economy. A subsequent labour force survey in 1970 revealed that 20% of the labour force was unemployed. A year later, in April, 1971, a leftist insurgency ravaged the country, leaving 25,000 young men and women dead.<\/p>\n

The ILO put the issue in perspective in a subsequent thesis: Should the post-independent governments embark on a family planning campaign, alongside its successful Malaria eradication campaign, the burden on the economy and the labour force caused by the expansion of population would have been mitigated to a greater extent, it stated.<\/p>\n

Those words of wisdom were later heeded by the subsequent governments and that was instrumental in Sri Lanka\u2019s success in population control. The percentage of population under the age of 15 declined \u2013 from 42% in 1963 to 24.89% in 2012.<\/p>\n

This metamorphosis in the composition of the population, needless to say, saved our welfare state from the otherwise inevitable collapse. It provided the youth with more opportunities for educational advancement and averted a mad scramble for scarce resources. Our much larger neighbour to the north, India, also opted for some of those methods, but only with limited success. During one dark chapter in its history, in the 70s, the State apparatus of the Indian Government subjected men to forced contraception, as a desperate and highly controversial measure aimed at lessening the impact of the population shock. Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi lost the subsequent election due to the raging public anger to those measures. Perhaps, the most successful population control campaign was adopted by China, though it is also a highly emotive topic for some Chinese parents. Again, sometimes, desperate circumstances call for some tough measures. Should China fail in those measures, not only the demographic, but also the economic landscape of the middle kingdom would have been much different. China is surely the greatest success story in poverty reduction in the 20th century. Helped by its robust growth rate and the low population growth, the official poverty rate in China declined from 85 % in 1981 to 16% in 2006. <\/p>\n

In contrast, Sri Lanka was not privileged to experience a miracle growth in the economy, but our low population growth helped the country in absorbing the economic shocks such as increase in defence expenses. That would partly explain as to why Sri Lanka could emerge largely unscathed after three costly insurgencies.<\/p>\n

Government\u2019s role <\/p>\n

Now, the Bodu Bala Sena wants to change this demographic pattern and want Sinhalese women to have more babies. That may even be an effective message, should it be heeded by the upper and the middle class segments of the population. However, our previous experience in population explosion reveals that much of the expansion was borne out of the rural and the urban poor, who despite their good intent, could not afford as many children as they wanted to have. Twenty years after the population bulge in the 60s, we started exporting low-end human labour, such as housemaids, cleaners and drivers to the Middle East.<\/p>\n

As far as its population is concerned, the government definitely has better things to do, than rolling back a successful family planning campaign.<\/p>\n

The government should focus on the quality of its population than its quantity.<\/p>\n

It should focus on creating a better future for the existing children. Today\u2019s Sri Lankan children would, in the future, be competing not only among themselves, but also with their counterparts in the rest of Asia and Europe.<\/p>\n

As the parents from South East Asia and Indian middle class open new avenues, in terms of information technology, language studies, recreation and so forth for their children, the Government of Sri Lanka should strive to provide our children with a level playing field. The government should aggressively promote new technology and make it accessible for local kids. The government can launch, with just a symbolic investment, classes for programming, coding and other disciplines of information technology for our kids, so that when they come of the age, they would set in the motion a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in this country, which is absent at present.<\/p>\n

The government can have a five or 10-year plan to make every kid proficient in English. It would open many doors for the future generation. The government could also offer a tuition fee loans as a national policy, so that every kid could pursue his or her education or training in a discipline of his or her own choosing. That would dramatically transform the structure of the largely semi skilled workforce in the country at present.
\nCOURTESY:CEYLON TODAY<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Ranga Jayasuriya Nick Clegg, the British Deputy Prime Minister and the Liberal Party Leader once famously said if the Britons want to have more children, which is perfectly fine, but they should be able to afford them. That is plain talking. That may even be politically suicidal should it be said in this part …<\/p>\n

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