An open letter to Governor Sinha:
Madam,
With regard to your article that appeared in the Herald newspaper on 27th September 2019, I would like to enlighten you on many distorted facts and opinions you’ve presented.
1. In paragraph 3, you’ve written that India had a one-child policy, hinting at the earlier governments of the 70s and 80s. India never had this policy. It was a two-child policy called ‘hum do hamare do’ (We are two, we’ll have two (children). China did not withdraw its one Child policy after 5 years. It took the Chinese government a whole generation to partially withdraw the policy.
3. In the second column, you call couples lazy and self-centred for not having two children. Not once did you mention the lack of increase in salary, falling sperm count (due to stress, environmental and dietary factors), rising housing costs etc. as reasons for why couples choose not to have more than one child.
4. In the third column, the first paragraph, as an example of parents who have more than 10-12 kids, you used a Muslim man’s quote. It’s clear you are echoing the fake mainstream political propaganda that the overall percentage of the Muslim population is growing (while others are declining).
5. You’ve written that you tell people to go see nearby areas where parents are having 4-5 kids. However, what you’ve shown is ignorance of the fact that agrarian families have many kids because they need hands to work on the farm. Today, the farms are gone, but people are still obsessed with a male child. Also, in the underprivileged section of the population, children are often forced into begging by their own parents.
6. Lastly, you talk about uneven population distribution. The reason for that is not parents, but uneven economic grown in India, which forces people to migrate. Right now, the population of North India is growing while in South India, it’s declining. The people from the north are migrating south which is going to be the cause of conflict.
I request the governor to make responsible statements while she is in office and not to insult the hard-working young couples of our country. So what if they want to have one less child so that they can buy a Mercedes Benz? After all, not everyone can be the Governor of Goa and order one at the expense of taxpayers
You are the Head of the Executive Wing of the State of Goa. Please make responsible statements while you are in this office and staying in Goa as our guest.
Thank you
Avinash Tavares
Source of image/article:http://epaper.heraldgoa.in/