State intervention in matters of conception is nothing new — China launched its One-Child Policy in 1980. But rather than laws, some countries are using unique incentives to balance birthrates.
Imagine a government-sponsored day off from work to stay home and have sex with your honey. Utopian? Depends on where you live. Couples in Ulyanovsk, Russia celebrated the ‘The Day of Conception’ Wednesday by doing just that. They stayed home from work and procreated for their country for the third year in a row, as this central Russian region participates in a government-sponsored initiative to raise Russia’s dangerously declining birthrate. Created by regional governor, Sergei Morozov, the program offers prizes of cars and fridges to couples who manage to successfully conceive on this day, proving the fruits of their labor exactly nine months later, on June 12, Russia’s national day.
Meanwhile, just a time zone and a half further south, young newlywed Indians living in the Satara district of the western state of Maharastra are being offered money prizes to hold off a couple of years before climbing on the baby-making wagon. In an initiative called the “Honeymoon Package Scheme,” new couples can earn $121 if they wait two years before conceiving, $182 if they wait three. According to the district’s statistics, almost 25 000 couples marry annually and 85 percent of women conceive in their first year of wedlock. The district’s population growth rate stands at approximately 3 million and India as a whole is predicted to overtake China’s as the world’s most populous country by 2050.
One country needs babies, another has too many. If you look at the big picture with a supply and demand kind of perspective, it sounds like there’s a very simple, creative solution to these demographic problems, no? At least that’s what prominent Russian feminist, author amd television presenter Maria Arbatova thinks. “The import of eligible bachelors from India is my big geopolitical idea,” she told RIA Novosti news agency and she argues that attracting Indian bachelors to Russia should be a government policy. Married to one herself, Arbatova claims that Indian men are the ideal husbands, being emotionally expressive and family-oriented with dreams only of raising as many children as possible. This may come as good news to Russian women who are holding off on motherhood for very pratical reasons. Discussions on Russian Brides Cyber Guide suggest that although not all Russian men are sexist alcoholics, good ones are definitively in decline. With only 88 males for every 100 females, the pickings are slim. But if Arbatova’s idea doesn’t fly and Indian men don’t step up for the Russian cause, all hope is not lost. The Chinese are coming. More than 500 000 Chinese have settled in Russia over the last decade. Chances are, some of them are still young, single and willing to take the day off work.
This article was published Friday, September 14, 2007.
