Post by AuntieSocial on Nov 22, 2003 18:34:46 GMT -5
Attempt to counter Muslims: Shiv Sena offers Hindus money to have more children
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By Associated Press
Published November 21, 2003
Publication: Daily Times (Pakistan)
LUCKNOW: A hard-line Hindu nationalist party in India’s coalition government has offered money to Hindus who have 10 or more children, to counter the perceived growing influence of Muslims. Shiv Sena will give the cash rewards to families in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, a party leader told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “Hindu couples having 10 or more children would be suitably rewarded, and the couple having the maximum number of children in the state would be awarded a cash prize of 100,000 rupees (US$2,175),” said Shiv Sena’s Uttar Pradesh president, Vijay Tiwari. Eighty-four percent of the northern state’s 170 million people are Hindus and 13 percent are Muslims. But hardline Hindu groups often claim the Hindu population is in danger of being overrun by Muslims. “This proposal is aimed at protecting the Hindu community,” Tiwari said. “A normal Muslim family has five children, while Hindus have only two.” “This is creating an imbalance in the society,” he said. India has more than 1 billion people - the world’s second largest population after China - and more than 80 percent of them are Hindus. The government officially encourages family planning, but at the same time celebrates the large population as a point of pride. Shiv Sena, a party in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Hindu nationalist-led coalition, has distributed pamphlets asking its members to identify Hindu families with four or more children. They’ll be given the title “Awakened Hindu Family,” the brochure said. The party has identified three couples with 10 or more children and 50 couples with five or more children in Lucknow, the state capital. Health officials _ who have been arduously promoting birth control programmes _ are dismayed. “When we are struggling to convince people about the small family norm and practicing birth control, such political statements could jeopardise our efforts,” said Dr H.P. Kumar, the state’s health and family welfare chief. The Uttar Pradesh government spends more than 500 million rupees (US$11 million) a year on family planning and birth control programmes. —AP
Click here to read the article on the original site
By Associated Press
Published November 21, 2003
Publication: Daily Times (Pakistan)
LUCKNOW: A hard-line Hindu nationalist party in India’s coalition government has offered money to Hindus who have 10 or more children, to counter the perceived growing influence of Muslims. Shiv Sena will give the cash rewards to families in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, a party leader told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “Hindu couples having 10 or more children would be suitably rewarded, and the couple having the maximum number of children in the state would be awarded a cash prize of 100,000 rupees (US$2,175),” said Shiv Sena’s Uttar Pradesh president, Vijay Tiwari. Eighty-four percent of the northern state’s 170 million people are Hindus and 13 percent are Muslims. But hardline Hindu groups often claim the Hindu population is in danger of being overrun by Muslims. “This proposal is aimed at protecting the Hindu community,” Tiwari said. “A normal Muslim family has five children, while Hindus have only two.” “This is creating an imbalance in the society,” he said. India has more than 1 billion people - the world’s second largest population after China - and more than 80 percent of them are Hindus. The government officially encourages family planning, but at the same time celebrates the large population as a point of pride. Shiv Sena, a party in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Hindu nationalist-led coalition, has distributed pamphlets asking its members to identify Hindu families with four or more children. They’ll be given the title “Awakened Hindu Family,” the brochure said. The party has identified three couples with 10 or more children and 50 couples with five or more children in Lucknow, the state capital. Health officials _ who have been arduously promoting birth control programmes _ are dismayed. “When we are struggling to convince people about the small family norm and practicing birth control, such political statements could jeopardise our efforts,” said Dr H.P. Kumar, the state’s health and family welfare chief. The Uttar Pradesh government spends more than 500 million rupees (US$11 million) a year on family planning and birth control programmes. —AP
