Three Baby ‘Problem’

Odisha HC’s curious stand against an aspect of personal liberty, that too by quoting Russell  

Housing societies are meant to manage common amenities, not police people’s fundamental rights. But they do try. Some prevent flat owners from renting to unmarried couples, others impose dietary restrictions, or limit the size of residents’ pets. An Odisha one, we now learn, kicks out members for having more than two children. When such a case reaches a constitutional court, you would expect it to strongly censure the violation of personal liberty. The state’s high court, however, has brought the gavel down on the petitioner instead. And it’s seasoned all this with the Bertrand Russellism that population explosion is more dangerous than hydrogen bombs. 

This sort of feels like a heavy rain warning put out during a drought…basis an old weather bulletin. India’s total fertility rate is now officially below the replacement level, as is Odisha’s. Several states are worrying about shrinking workforces. Andhra Pradesh has announced cash incentives for a third child, and also a fourth one. Yes, here and there, rulebooks still carry peak Hum Do Hamare Do paranoia. But these need revising, not reinforcing. The above Russellism is similarly dated. It belongs to a world before the contraceptive pill, and is a strange authority to judge a demographic dispute of today. As for the third child being compared to a thermonuclear weapon, it is statistically much more likely to become a taxpayer than a geopolitical crisis. 

Malthus’s ghost, of course, hovers over this entire episode. There are few dudes in history who continue to be quoted so much, after having been proved so spectacularly wrong. He remains the patron saint of every lazy explanation. Traffic? Too many people. Pollution? Too many people. Why not blame babies instead of fixing the housing shortage? The greatest threat BTW that third baby poses is to its parents’ savings and sleep. When they’re embracing this state, let no cooperative society act like a thug republic’s fertility inspector.

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