India Introduces New Form Of Birth Control: TV

Worried you don’t have the cash to have another baby? Don’t worry, just turn on the TV!

The Indian government is making a push to bring televisions into more homes in rural parts of the nation in hopes that people will be so busy watching the tube they’ll spend less time having sex… and making babies.

In a country that once boasted the dubious honour of adding more people to the world’s population per year than any other place on earth and eighty-one million people living below the poverty line in its urban centers alone, population control is big issue. And they’ve tried other measures – including fast-tracking special gun permits for men who agree to vasectomies.

It’s also not NEW news that the Indian people need help to keep the population in check. A NY Times article from the early eighties reveals the government was paying women cash back then as an incentive for undergoing tubal ligations, and the government was subsidising both the pill and condoms.

But TV? As birth control?

The London Times quoted Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Health and Family Welfare Minister, on the issue, saying “If there is electricity in every village, then people will watch TV till late at night and then fall asleep. They won’t get a chance to produce children.”

I suppose he’s right – after all – what happens when the electric goes out during storms? You end up with the hurricane baby booms!

Is this going to be the new “I have a headache?” Sorry honey, can’t have sex because there’s a new episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” on tonight. Then again, the sight of McSteamy may simply make for sex LATER in the evening.

Image: Guardian