Television, Don't Sit to Close

The Health minister of India has worked out a new plan, that he believes will slow population growth in his country. 

I warn you, its progressive, its outside the box, and its main basis is to give every home in rural India electricity, but it doesn't include electrodes to the testicles. That's right, because with their exploding populous something has to be done and Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is poised to fix, so to speak, all of India's ever expanding problems with television. 

They celebrated the astonishing 1 billionth birth in the year 2000, the population grows by a whopping 18 million new born babies every year, and by 2028 they will of over taken China, as the worlds most populated country. There are religious, and cultural importance attached to having a large family, and a massive amount of scepticism toward government family planning, due to the failed 1970s sterilization program, that left many young, unwed, poor men snipped to mit.

So what is the new televised solution? Could it be a respectful, educational, and valuable government sponsored series on the dangers of over population, the risks of HIV, and the effective forms, and uses, of birth control?

No, of course not. First off that would be too simple and logical, and secondly the whole tone of this article would be different. 

What Azad has proposed, is that they provide all of India with electricity, so that they can watch television, which, as house wives across America will attest, kills the sex drive. 

"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," he was quoted saying, and yes he has gone on record to point out that he wasn't joking.

Well as much as the last season of Everybody Loves Raymond makes me never want to have sex again, ever, the plan does seem a little flawed.

The family planning and safe sex movement were halted in India decades ago by poor, and discriminatory policy in the 1970s. An aggressive government funded education initiative is needed to effect the next generation of Indian citizens, not a wish, not a prayer, and not the late show, though everyone still likes Conan.