Right after reading the story about women working in the sugar cane fields of India, read this other one about the declining number of delivery wards in China. In this instance the decline comes from choices women are making about marriage and childbirth. They don't feel like the conditions are right for them to make one or both of those decisions.
“We would have to work a lot more to provide for a baby, and we don’t want more stress and pressure right now. Life is not just about starting a family, quality of life is also important,” she said.
“So for now, we just have a cat.”
India is much the same for women who have the privilege of making their own choices.
The figures of the continuously declining fertility rate among educated women are a reflection of the changing beliefs in society. This emerging situation in demography does not bode well for the rising level of population in the country. Although theoretically, even in uneducated and less educated families, children can become better off through education, there is a greater possibility that they remain illiterate and poor. Such a situation can bring down the quality of population. There is a need for deep thinking on this subject by society and the government.
Can't help thinking how the systematic abuse of women and their bodies build up collective bad karma and when at least some women have choice, they are able to exercise it to punish society - whether that is their direct intent or not. It's like my friend A said of her decision to stay lovelessly married to a man who gives her social status and connections but she would "never let him have the satisfaction" of having her give birth to his progeny.
A is way younger than me and but has held her ground about being childless for the couple of decades she has been married. The man in question can't really "trade up" as far as wives go - A is the full package and probably the best he can ever get. She knows she has the power and does not hesitate to use it. A is "lucky" that she is not driven by material desire in life, so she is able to make decisions based on other considerations.
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