Health and Family Welfare minister Ghulam Nabi Azad believes that the best way to curb India’s population growth is to electrify villages, so that couples spend their time watching TV instead of indulging in activities that can increase the country’s already excessive population.
“In olden days people had no other entertainment but sex, which is why they produced so many children. Today, TV is the biggest source of entertainment. Hence, it is important that there is electricity in every village so that people watch TV till late in the night. By the time the serials are over, they’ll be too tired to have sex and will fall asleep. Then they won’t get a chance to reproduce. When there is no electricity, there is nothing else to do but produce babies,” he said, addressing a function on World Population Day on Saturday.
“Don’t think I am saying this in a lighter vein. I am serious. When light will reach (villages), 80 per cent of population growth can be reduced through TV,” he said, adding that the government is working to ensure greater rural electrification.
That sex is the cheapest form of entertainment in the villages of India is a truism among population experts. But the minister has probably forgotten that TV is at best, an unreliable contraceptive, given that some of the popular late-night shows are known to cause libidinal surges.
