Government officials in India would be much happier if parents would stop procreating, and they think they have the perfect way to get moms and dads to stop doing the dirty: TV. Lots and lots of TV.
The Indian government just unveiled a new campaign to bring televisions into more homes in rural parts of the republic. Officials hope that residents there will be too busy making time to watch must-see TV that they’ll spend less time making babies.
Speaking to local news reporters about the new TV measure Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Health and Family Welfare Minister, said “If there is electricity in every village, then people will watch TV till late at night and then fall asleep. They won’t get a chance to produce children.”
Considering that India is the second most populous country in the world, and once held the dubious honor of popping out more babies than any other place on the planet, it’s no wonder that the government is not above turning to the boob tube as means to help control procreating.
According to officials, India has 81 million people living below the poverty line in its urban centers alone. Of those barely scraping by, more than half have never set eyes on a TV set. As for the tens of millions who live in country’s rural areas, lawmakers estimate that nearly three quarters have never watched a single television program in their lives. So you see why the idea of creating a country of couch potatoes might be a viable option for the Indian government.
And lest you think that the TV campaign is the only incentive program that officials have tried to push, consider that lawmakers already instituted fast-tracking special gun permits for men who agree to vasectomies. In addition, back in the 1980s the government actually gave women cold hard cash as an incentive for undergoing tubal ligations. The cash incentive program coincided with the government’s subsidization of both the pill and condoms.
I suppose when it comes to cutting back on coitus, you have to get creative, but TV as birth control?
Do you think it will work?
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