I respect Darwin’s hypothesis of “survival of the fittest”. Probably I’m biased to logic in it, rather than in any other belief. I agree, that it is absolutely necessary for a species to be instinctively interested in sexual reproduction in order to survive long enough like human civilization did. However, I think, that given intelligence as a surplus to human beings over other living beings, we have formulated rules and regulations on this activity by limiting it to post marital (in majority of cases) through civilization, religion, culture and finally to control the economy of the state.
In the current day scenario, a largely populated country like India, recommends having one child or at most two per family. Even so, at the current rate, it is predicted that India becomes world’s most populated country by 2030’s. Now China has a different methodology in decelerating their population growth. What really happens inside China stays in China. So we never know the methodologies followed. But as far as I know, they are strictly limited to having one child per family.
My question, in this phase of life, given the growing population and the onset of scarcity of natural resources is that, why do we need children? Or in other words, why does ‘every married couple’ is supposed to have children? Of course, the societal pressure in Indian context is far higher than so in many of the Western nations, however the process of getting married and following the inevitable consequence of raising kids is more or less common across the world.
In India, in case the reader has no clue, having no children is considered as incapability rather than a choice. Even if you clearly specify your choice, it would be taken synonymous to impotency. Only today, to a herd of my relatives did I mention that I do not like to children and the entire room was filled up with an uncomfortable silence. It took a few moments for one of the amiable relations to cheer the group up by diverting them to another subject.
So when there are enough of young adults and children across the world to make sure that our ‘fittest human race’ which survived and superseded all other species on earth would certainly survive for eons to come, then why is the notion of making more of human race is all that is on everybody’s mind.
I’m not saying that a select few/privileged few should be able to reproduce and the rest should perish. I’m just saying that people should be aware and start to shy away from reproduction. After all, its no longer the ‘survival of fittest’ necessity or compulsion to reproduce.
Then comes the point of necessity. In ancient societal context, where men were working and women were mostly doing household chores (this was long ago in Western countries and till recently in India), there was a need for someone to take responsibility of the family and support it financially after the man has served a certain age as the primary/sole wage earner of the family. Now, fortunately, things have changed on this front; no longer, there is a sole wage earner. Almost everyone in a usual household works. Also, given the vast increase in private sector and relaxation on retirement policy, improvement in terms of pension plans and insurance etc., the dependence of a family on their own posterity has greatly reduced. Besides, the families nowadays are turning more and more smaller, hence being even termed as nuclear. Hence, monetarily, I find little reason for a family to say there is a reason for reproduction.
Then comes the point of interest. I really do not understand this. I do not understand why movies depict it this way, and I do not understand why a few of the females I know agree with this. Women like the fact that they can bear children, gestate for a few months, deliver babies and then raise them to adulthood. I think a part of it comes from the fact that most of us are not eccentric (otherwise it wouldn’t be called eccentric) and would want to do what everyone else did. Like in the freedom movement in India, I’m sure there were people like me who went to fight for freedom just because everyone in the neighborhood was going. Partly, it could also be the reason (again in Darwinian terms) as to why our race survived.
What I wonder though is, when every other organ transplant is dreaded, how can one be happy by the very fact that there would be a parasitic living organism that grows inside their own body and that could probably cause risk to their own life! And this point is usually overlooked by all the excitement and support that the society bestows upon pregnancy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if any woman would get disgusted reading the viewpoint described above. But I would like to converse with them, provided they could substantiate the argument with any opinion other than ‘you wouldn’t understand’. I assume I have some intelligence to follow a meaningful conversation or at least I stand as an eligible candidate for such benefit of doubt.
Hence, I do not find substantial reasons against the point of ‘reproduction bringing pleasure’. The raising of children may be an entertaining pastime. But so would be the raising of Dogs or Cats or any such pets if at all the current generation of population has sufficient time to do so. However, like it was put forth before, given the enormous progress in industrialization and the necessity for a massive working class, I do not think anyone has enough time and energy to expend on these activities. Hence, crèches have become such a household term these days.
