The poor understand the system.

Use of condoms in 2010-2011 has fallen in 22 out of 34 states. TOI, 12 December. It has risen by 38% in J&K, by 8% in Bihar, by 35% in Andhra , by 44% in Assam and by 7% in Bengal. However, condom use has fallen in highly populous states of MP by 39%, Kerala by 33%, Haryana by 31%, Uttarakhand by 27%, UP by 11%, Rajasthan by 23%, Odisha by 22%, Chattisgarh by 22% Jharkhand by 24% and Himachal Pradesh by 20%. This is despite a program to make contraceptives available at the door of every villager. Apparently the politicians hoped to bring down birth rate to 2.1 per woman by 2010, at which level the population stays at the same level, and limit the population to 1.65 billion by 2060. In 2008 the number of births fell by 42000. Out of 26 million births that take place each year 45% are to women with 2 or more  children already. Why do people continue to produce so many children when the cost of food is rising by more than 10% year on year, school fees have become unaffordable, property prices and rents have risen by 1000% and transport costs have jumped because of the rise in oil prices. One reason is that rural people live in huts on vacant land and do not have to pay rent, children do not go to school, food is cheaper in rural areas and they do not have to commute to work. The main reason is that high birth rate is encouraged by myriad schemes doling out money to the poor, to win elections. This starts at the hospital itself where a woman is paid Rs 2000 after delivery. This is available only in government hospitals where the poor go and not in paying nursing homes where taxpayers deliver. Then they have ration cards for cheap food, free school meals for children, fictitious employment schemes, Below Poverty Line cards for free healthcare and many schemes that we do not know about encouraging the poor to sit at home and produce children. Naturally a vast fraction of all the money is stolen by politicians and civil servants which has provided the Congress with an excuse to invent a new wheeze to win the next general election in 2014. Everyone in the country is being forced to acquire a biometric identity card with prints of all 10 fingers and iris scans called Aadhar and money will be paid to the poor on the basis of such cards directly through bank accounts. The reasoning is that by avoiding local civil servants there will be no wastage. However, if there was a Nobel Prize for corruption Indian politicians and civil servants will win every time. The government has already set aside Rs 990 billion for such programs this year and we can imagine that the total will keep on ballooning every year. The poor understand the system perfectly. Produce a lot of children, send them out to work as soon as they are 10 years old and collect money from both sides. It is a bonanza. Who cares for India?