This story about how young people are coping with post-election realities made for pretty sad reading. These are choices that can become irreversible in some cases but the desire to take charge of one's destiny particularly in youth is understandable as well. I have heard such lines from younger members of my extended family so many times over the years, just replace "election" with some other burning, insurmountable and unsolvable problem India has - there is no shortage of those, and you have their reasoning to remain childless by choice.
“Before the election, we both had been back and forth on having kids, but after the election, we agreed that this is no world to bring a child into,”
Many young couples can be ambivalent about becoming parents and the reasons run the gamut. But the one thing that seems to firm up their decision is their perception of what the future holds for their child - the future that is beyond their power to control. If they feel bad enough about what they see, then they will decide not to have kids. For me this is very far from anecdotal - I am the minority among my cousins, nephews and nieces because I am a parent, the vast majority of them are not. There came an inflection point in their decision-making much like the couples this story refers to and the die was cast. There are indeed many who would rather go childless than cede their right to control their reproductive destiny.
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