The Economist (June 4)
“You are having too many babies. For decades that crude message was drilled into the minds of Indians by their rulers.” Slogans on schools proclaimed, “Two or three children, enough.” There were even forced sterilizations in the 1970s. “But when Indian school textbooks are reprinted this summer, they will carry a very different message. They will warn not of the dangers of having too many babies, but of the risks of having too few.” The “surprise baby bust” taking place in India “is a warning to the world. It is not just rich places that are becoming less fertile.”
Tags: 1970s, Babies, Baby bust, Children, Fertile, Forced sterilizations, India, Rich places, Schools, Slogans, Surprise, Textbooks, Warning
PEW Research Center (November 19)
U.S. fertility rates “were already at a record low before the pandemic began” and have continued dropping during it, “lending evidence to predictions… that economic uncertainty might trigger a baby bust.” The center’s recent survey shows even broader concerns. “A rising share of U.S. adults who are not already parents say they are unlikely to ever have children, and their reasons range from just not wanting to have kids to concerns about climate change and the environment.”
Tags: Baby bust, Children, Climate change, Economic uncertainty, Fertility, Kids, Pandemic, Parents, Record low, Survey, U.S., Unlikely
