Surely, it is a moral obligation?

The Congress President Rahul Gandhi has led a life "so privileged, so protected that he does not know much about life and the feral real world", wrote M Joseph. "Even those who were once underdogs, the proud self-made, are not training their children to start at the bottom and find their way to the top. Our children have never taken public buses, or eaten real street food." Pundits have a habit of focusing on just one aspect of a problem. Middle class parents are not only paying for their own children but also children of the poor because school fees have skyrocketed due to the Right to Education Act which forces private schools to reserve 25% of seats for poor children. Now the government is to start a "nationwide movement -- Each One, Teach One -- exhorting each family to support at least one student". In India, what starts as a voluntary contribution soon becomes a compulsory tax, enforced by ruthless tax officials who have scant regard for the law. Double income, no kids (DINK) families are growing in India. 42% of rural families with both members earning have no children, the number being 22% in urban areas. The cost of raising a child is just too high for those who earn while those with little income get a large number of subsidies from the government. As for protecting children, 55,000 children went missing in 2016 in India. About half of 174 children that go missing everyday in India are ever found again. "The share of child kidnapping in overall kidnappings rose from 23% in 2006 to 40% in 2012, and then climbed further to 60% in 2016, NCRB data shows." Families with fewer children are better off economically and the children are better educated, a study showed. Naturally, those who have few children will protect them more and will have the ability to spend more on them. "India is home to 30% of 385 million children living in extreme poverty, the highest in South Asia, according to a new report by World Bank Group and Unicef, 'Ending Extreme Poverty: a Focus on Children'." "The objective of a family is to give its children unfair advantages," said Joseph. Why is it unfair if a couple deliberately have just one child and then spend an enormous amount of effort and time on that child, instead of giving birth to a large number of children and then sending them to beg on streets? Perhaps Joseph would want to ban educated parents from teaching their children at home. Middle-class parents may spend more on educating their children but the children still have to work hard to pass exams to get seats in elite colleges. The real scandal is how children of politicians inherit power from their parents. "If I get married and have children, I will be status-quoist and will like my children to take my place," said Rahul Gandhi. He understands what Joseph doesn't.