How Family Planning impacts Economy?

Family planning is a topic that has made home in many couples our country. Government made it crystal clear through advertisements and every other marketing method about the importance of Family planning. As we all know the fact that India stands at 2nd and comprises of 17.7% of the world’s population but when it comes to annual increment in the population, as per report of World Bank from 2018, it was 1% and it is decreasing significantly.

But as we know that these are just figures then what are the after effects of this? The increasing population invites many other problems which is due non-obedience of family planning standards. In our country Family Planning is mainly promoted because of its benefits to health that decreases infant and maternal mortality. The infant mortality is when child dies after birth and maternal mortality is when mother dies at the time of giving birth to the child. Both of these problems call up for proper awareness of reproductive health and usage of contraceptives for prevention against unplanned pregnancies. Infant mortality needs to be stopped as it affects the reproductive health of the mother also. And maternal mortality leads to sudden change in the sex ratio of our country on annual basis which needs to be kept in balanced condition.

That’s why family planning came into picture that showed positive results with time when the rate of Population Growth and rate of Fertility decreased. And it’s still declining showing the increment of the awareness level of people. Government is working behind the awareness of sexual health & population control as they these are not just some things that are needed to be done by government only, they are equally important to know for every single individual of the country. 

Family Planning principles convey to keep a gap between two children so that the second child that is born gets the benefit of all the nutrients that comes down after the birth first child. These nutrients take time of 2-3 years to recover back which help the second child to get birth with a good health that protects the child and mother both. 

But apart from health there are many other things that should be considered that are related to finances that will be barred by the parents only. When a new child is born it comes with responsibilities which can’t be ignored. Family planning, apart from being a part of economic growth it also leads to personal growth somewhere which empowers us to do things that help ourselves and country to stand tall against every single problem that is unsolved till now or will come in future.

There are some of the general considerations that need to be taken by a couple strictly towards financial planning if they are thinking of having a child. Those considerations are listed below with explanation: -

1). Managing children’s education & other expenses

Just for a moment, imagine that you are having more than one child with you. After the birth of the second child, you and your partner need to do all those things that you were doing for the first child again. In the upbringing of children the most important thing is education. Education is the only thing that is having an approximate inflation rate of 10-15% which is more than that of the retail inflation rate i.e. 5.8%. You need to take the decision keeping this factor in mind. When you calculate for the moment that if admitting your child after 21 years in an MBA Institute will cost you 27 lakhs approx. which is 2 lakhs (fees depends on the institute) at present. 

This thing clearly denotes that before you take any decision of planning for a child you should always keep this thing in mind. If you have your financials on place to do so then and then take any decision. This was what related to education, but there are many other aspects that you should think whether they are discretionary or non-discretionary that is needed to be bought for them separately.  

2). The Single Parent problem

There can be any reason that someone need to manage children being single. Mostly it is more because of the death of the partner. And as Mahabharata says that “Death is the ultimate truth” and everyone has to accept this at one point of time. But what if it happened before the child understands anything. At that point of time many opt to live single whole life and take all the responsibility on them. They will need to bear all the stresses that come in the way of their upbringing. Now a question arises that why this thing matters to anyone? 

Just imagine if you face this thing and you are having more than 2 children, it will increase the level of stress and then it will actually become an obstacle to your growth and it’s not the thing that you will not grow in this kind of situation, but it will take a lot of time to do so. To ease this there are two things that you can do. First, the breadwinner of the family must take a proper insurance that will help the partner and children to not get into any unwanted financial problems. Second, the partner should be equally educated to work in these conditions to at least run the house. 

3). Stoppage to self empowerment

As said before that having more than two children increases the expenses, responsibilities, stress etc. that actually stops you from empowering yourself. There was a fact described in one of Dr. Ujjwal Patni’s Video that PepsiCo’s former CEO Indra Nooyi is a respected public figure in India for being at such position where she was, but it didn’t happened in India. It happened when she settled abroad for studies and work. 

It was nothing like she couldn’t be able to do it here in India but if we see our track record of how many woman entrepreneurs are there who came up in our environment with a change which shows that Indra Nooyi would have got indulged into such things that are running in our society from many years taking care of children, home, parents etc. She would never be at that place where she is now. 

These kinds of personalities are found very less in our country. Some don’t do out of shame, some don’t do out of societal pressure, some don’t do because of less awareness. But there are some that do it for running their home, support their husbands to fulfil their needs and desires and do upbringing of their children. Just think if they are given chance to come up and become what they want to become and achieve what they want to achieve, then it will open two income sources for one family and will help them give best of the best educations to their children. Not just this, it will impact all those nearby people and will encourage them to do the same as society won’t look at your efforts, they will see your results to think about it.

They will think inside that “When they can do it in such difficult conditions and not-so-broad minded community, then why can’t we?” and this chain will continue to grow further with time. But the initiative will be taken by you only, whether to consider it or not because as family planning doesn’t only include the health related aspects to cure it but it is also related to how it will impact our future and self growth.

4). Decrement in Employment 

This is one of the most discussed topics ever as unemployment was there when the party in power was different and is also present in the current party in power. This is always because of the gap between demand and supply which will be present every time as the career trends change with the time and to cop up with it accurately is very difficult, for e.g. 10 years back no one heard about the jobs of Data Scientist most, it was a new career option for everyone so looking at that thing, no one showed that much interest in it. 

Source : Analytics India Magazine

But as the time is changed, nowadays it’s a hot career option as the hot career options before 10 years are tanked now. So it will happen with this field also after a certain period of time. But why we need to think about it when it comes to Family Planning?

Imagine you worked a lot for your children’s education and when they become able to go for their higher studies, you have enough funds to spend for their studies. But what if they chose a field where getting a work for them at an initial level will become hard. Not everyone think of starting a business after studies because of lack of enough funds to start it. So they are left with one option at that time that is getting a job at first.

If the degree or the study chosen doesn’t meet the modern standards of a particular work then it may happen that they need to start with less wages than they deserve. At this point of time the money that you spent for their study will seem to be not giving a good return on investment. And it’s not just an example that is given; it is a true story of many Indian students and their parents. Parents allow their children nowadays to choose the career that they want. But at certain point of time after the studies get over and they come out in the market to find work, they face this scenario which need to be thought about. 

This example and study was for one or two children but imagine you have more than two children then what will happen? You spend money on their education and then your children trap into unemployment or had to satisfy with low wages. Everyone who studies aspires to study in IIMs or IITs, but very less get chance to study in these types of prominent institutes which give a guarantee in terms of job. No parents are able to see their children fall into this trap but it is not what you want it is what market wants. Every child takes time to get what they want but it takes time to reach at that place. But it increases your stress which has no remedy till they reach there. 

And not everyone is having is having money in their hands to spend like this but they want their children to get proper education because of which they will education loan which will be paid off by children once “they get a job”.

So keeping a far-sight actually helps you to not feel such things in future which actually conclude that family planning helps decrease the rate of unemployment on a long term basis.

So summing up the whole with one line is that “Family Planning affects the economy but it goes from the route of your personal finances”.