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~~~~~
Video Information: 25.01.23, IIT-Ropar, Greater Noida
Context:
~ Overpopulation is a crime today.
~ Overpopulation is the biggest problem in India.
~ What are ways to reduce fertility rate?
~ Where are we heading as a country?
~ How are we responsible for the climate crisis?
~ Government policies for population control.
~ India will soon be most populous in the world.
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates?
Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work?
Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...
Want to work with Acharya Prashant?
Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...
~~~~~
Video Information: 25.01.23, IIT-Ropar, Greater Noida
Context:
~ Overpopulation is a crime today.
~ Overpopulation is the biggest problem in India.
~ What are ways to reduce fertility rate?
~ Where are we heading as a country?
~ How are we responsible for the climate crisis?
~ Government policies for population control.
~ India will soon be most populous in the world.
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00 Good evening, sir.
00:05 My question is on population.
00:09 We were just talking about it and a couple of your answers previously you've mentioned
00:16 about the population and you also touched upon that point that we have recently surpassed
00:23 China according to the most recent estimates at the beginning of this very year.
00:28 And currently India's population stands at around 1.4142 billion people.
00:35 So by this estimate, we are the most populous country in the world.
00:41 And we are going to add the maximum number of people from now onwards to the very good
00:46 amount of time and the population projection says that by 2050, 2060, we will keep growing.
00:55 So in many of your videos, many of your talks, you have always mentioned that you know how
01:01 population is at the very root of so many societal problems, so many environmental problems,
01:08 so many problems related to the planets.
01:12 And we see this figure and that too for a country like India, which is very unprepared
01:17 in terms of many things.
01:19 So what is the way forward?
01:21 What should we do?
01:22 Is there any important role of policy makers?
01:26 And if we are at this level of population, is there, is it, can it ever be an advantage
01:33 in this bleak atmosphere?
01:36 So that's the question.
01:38 Advantage to whom? you will have a larger number of people proceeding to occupy territory
01:55 from a neighboring country.
01:57 How can overpopulation be an advantage?
02:03 Advantage to whom?
02:05 Why?
02:06 In what sense?
02:09 So that's not, that's not even imaginable to think of overpopulation as an advantage.
02:25 Overpopulation is not merely a problem, it's a crime.
02:30 It's the most dastardly crime today.
02:37 How to control?
02:40 There have to be both positive and negative measures.
02:44 We very well know that when populations get more educated, the fertility rates drop.
02:58 We also know that when there are better medical services and education is guaranteed and there
03:10 is social security and greater participation of women in the workforce, again the fertility
03:20 rates drop.
03:22 And all these are great things to have irrespective of their effect on the fertility rates.
03:30 We want people to be educated, even if that does not decrease the fertility rate.
03:35 We want women to be empowered and to be financially independent, even if that does not decrease
03:42 the fertility rate.
03:44 So all these are virtuous goals that come with the added benefit that they have a sobering
03:54 effect on the fertility rate.
03:58 So these are the positive measures we must take.
04:02 On the negative side, on the disincentivizing side, have great health and great education
04:28 and I stand as the underwriter.
04:30 We will provide schools and we will provide hospitals.
04:37 So once we have done that, we do not want you to have a third kid and if you have a
04:42 third kid, then we stop all the subsidies or at least reduce the subsidies.
04:53 And there are so many benefits that citizens draw from the government and if you come from
05:06 a disadvantaged or impoverished section, then there are additional benefits you get from
05:12 the government.
05:15 So the government does have a significant handle on individual decision making by using
05:30 the financial relationships that the government has with the individual.
05:36 The government can very strongly disincentivize the individual from having kids, more kids
05:48 than two let's say.
05:51 Equally if you decide to have no kids or just one kid, there should be material benefits.
06:04 There should be immaterial benefits as well.
06:08 You should be encouraged, incentivized in a financial way, also in a social way.
06:16 Why should you not be presented with an award?
06:23 Why not?
06:24 Why not?
06:25 You are setting an example.
06:27 So we confer this award on you, Deshmit or Samaj Bandhu, some kind of an award.
06:36 And that couple then deserves to be highlighted in media and the government controls a lot
06:43 of media, don't we know that?
06:47 Once a couple decides we are not going to have kids, let the couple be presented as
06:52 a role model.
06:58 So there is a lot that can be done and you do not need to take draconian measures like
07:06 at the time of emergency.
07:08 You do not need to forcefully sterilize people.
07:14 That's not even needed.
07:17 There are so many other ways you can both incentivize and de-incentivize people.
07:25 But for this to happen, you need a government that can make this happen.
07:35 And for that to happen, you need people that can vote that kind of government to power.
07:44 And for that to happen, you need to have an agency that can first of all educate people
07:53 towards the peril of overpopulation.
07:59 That agency should be able to challenge the long standing cultural notions.
08:10 If a woman does not procreate, her life is wasted.
08:17 The purpose of life is to have a full nest and a full nest is defined by the abundance
08:27 of kids in it.
08:34 You are a great person if you are a great mother.
08:39 If you have been a great mother, you are a veritable goddess.
08:47 You can be worshipped.
08:52 So the population will first of all have to be educated in a spiritual way so that we
08:58 realize that procreation is not the purpose of life, especially not the woman's life.
09:09 And that time, golden time, peak time, precious time spent taking care of the babies is not
09:20 particularly great investment.
09:24 Come on let's be bold and honest enough to say that up front.
09:30 There is no great virtue or value in changing diapers and washing diapers and catering to
09:41 all kinds of animalistic needs of an infant.
09:45 There is nothing great about that.
09:48 It does not even require a person of high consciousness to do all that.
09:55 Even animals do all that.
09:59 So let the woman know very clearly that if she is wasting years and years behind a baby,
10:06 she is actually wasting her life.
10:17 And she has been conditioned to very coolly say, you know now there is the baby, so how
10:24 can I continue working?
10:28 Six or seven months before childbirth, some of them take leaves and then they don't return
10:36 to the workplace for the next four, five years, sometimes even ten years, sometimes they never
10:44 return at all.
10:49 They need to be very clearly told without mincing words, even if it hurts and offends
10:59 that they are wasting their life.
11:04 The patriarchal society has placed such a great value on motherhood that women do not
11:15 feel bothered at all, harmed at all or ashamed at all.
11:30 Just wasting all their life running behind kids.
11:34 They feel they are doing something very honorable, very respectable, very valuable.
11:44 I am not saying you should just pick the newborn and drop it somewhere and get rid of it.
11:54 But you should know very well that time spent on the newborn, time spent on child raising
12:04 is not a particularly great investment and you have limited time as a human being.
12:14 So even if your biology and your physical tendencies demand that you must have a kid,
12:20 please keep the number of kids to a minimum so that the wastage is minimized.
12:30 The time spent on one kid is enough investment.
12:36 Do not spend more time on more kids.
12:39 What are you doing all the time?
12:45 Think of the life of a new mother.
12:54 Think of her life.
12:58 How is her life different from the life of any other female mammal that has newly given
13:18 birth?
13:21 Think of a buffalo or a goat.
13:29 All the time they have to just look after the kid and they cannot read, they cannot
13:33 take care of themselves.
13:36 If you are a sports person, your sports are gone.
13:41 If you are a traveler, you cannot travel anymore.
13:45 You cannot even visit the cinema halls.
13:51 You cannot go shopping.
13:53 You cannot even sleep with abandon.
14:02 All the time you have to be tuned in.
14:13 Can you go and sit in a library and spend dedicated eight hours there?
14:20 You can't do that, not for two months, not for four months.
14:22 You cannot do that for the next many years.
14:31 What about your dance classes?
14:38 What happened to your swimming schedule?
14:39 You were a champion swimmer.
14:46 What happened to your tennis matches?
14:50 You were so fond of challenging everybody around.
14:58 And you had a great volley and a great backhand.
15:02 What happened to all that?
15:09 And you used to sit and continuously think and meditate on the great questions of life.
15:20 You were thinking, who am I?
15:21 Why do I exist?
15:22 What is meant by nations?
15:25 Why is society organized the way it is?
15:31 Those moments used to be your internal bread and butter.
15:35 Now can you spend those peaceful moments in quietness and solitude?
15:40 Can you do that?
15:41 Then why are you so eager to pop a baby?
15:59 The baby is the master, the mother is the servant.
16:01 That's obvious for many long years.
16:07 And that's a biological connection.
16:09 And the same biological connection will mean that once the baby grows up, he'll have his
16:12 own life.
16:16 First three years of his or her life, when the mother invests practically everything
16:21 she has into the baby, the baby doesn't have any memory.
16:26 Nobody remembers the first three years of his life.
16:29 And that's when your mother has been doing the most for you.
16:33 And you don't remember that.
16:34 You cannot remember that.
16:41 The baby is now eight or ten and he is already building a separate universe of his own.
16:47 Does it not happen?
16:48 He is already hiding things from the mother.
16:52 And the mother sacrifices herself totally for the baby.
16:56 Why is the mother so stupid?
16:59 The mother is a human being first of all, right?
17:01 The gender comes later.
17:02 First of all, you are a human consciousness.
17:05 You are not born to raise kids.
17:07 You are born to get liberated.
17:21 I look at women.
17:23 On one hand, I feel bad, I feel empathetic.
17:31 On the other hand, I feel furiously angry.
17:37 You are responsible for your own wretched state.
17:42 Don't you know what you are doing?
17:44 You are hurting yourself all the time.
17:46 You are allowing yourself to get exploited.
17:49 Why do you do this to yourself?
18:02 The scholarly student becomes a wet nurse.
18:12 And the baby is shitting all the time.
18:15 Urinating all the time.
18:19 Was that supposed to be your destiny?
18:24 Urine and stools?
18:33 And breastfeeding?
18:34 That's what you are born for?
18:45 This emancipation has to be the thing that drives population control.
18:53 If the woman is liberated, the population cannot explode.
19:00 If population explodes, that's a clear indication of women's misery.
19:08 The more miserable, ignorant and enslaved women are, the more you will find populations
19:16 exploding.
19:19 See, practically, man has zero role in the process.
19:27 Let's face it.
19:31 He impregnates and gets away paying a very small price.
19:44 In fact, in some sense, his own beastly tendencies get satiated.
19:50 Now the woman is confined to the house.
19:55 So she has been now domesticated.
20:08 Like a pet mammal.
20:11 Now she becomes even more easier to control.
20:18 And the man puffs up.
20:19 Now I am the provider, the sole provider.
20:21 You stay at home, I am providing.
20:23 You leave your job now, you are pregnant.
20:27 So I am the sole provider.
20:28 And if you are the sole provider, then you become the master, obviously.
20:32 By impregnating the woman, the man becomes her master.
20:37 And the woman does not see that.
20:43 Just emotion, emotion.
20:48 Her foolishness.
21:01 And the man goes out to work and he visits places and broadens his experience and learns
21:08 of things and grows as an individual.
21:10 And what is the woman doing?
21:12 Cleaning shit.
21:14 And breastfeeding.
21:18 And preparing bottles.
21:24 And rushing to doctors.
21:33 And the man is growing.
21:36 In terms of knowledge, in terms of money, in terms of power.
21:42 And the woman is rotting at home.
21:46 That's population for you.
21:52 And on top of that, the man will say, you see, look at how magnanimous I am.
22:01 I am the sole breadwinner.
22:03 You two sit at home, you and the baby.
22:06 And I provide for both of you idlers.
22:11 What good are the two of you doing at home?
22:14 Just sitting comfortably.
22:16 And I am the one who is going out there working and providing for you two slothful people.
22:23 Doing nothing, good for nothing.
22:42 But she has her moments of bliss.
22:44 She looks at the baby and forgets her trauma.
22:49 She says, see, can there be a higher bliss than the smiling face of my little one?
23:00 Yes, ma'am.
23:06 Knowledge and consciousness and realization and power.
23:21 These are much, much higher joys than the smiling face of your baby.
23:43 On the contrary, we have girls who break up because the man says, I do not want babies.
24:12 I want you to lead a full and free life directed towards knowledge and liberation.
24:19 I do not want you to be saddled with babies.
24:24 And the girl breaks up.
24:26 She says, what kind of man?
24:27 Probably impotent.
24:38 Six weeks into the relationship and she starts clamoring for marriage.
24:44 Six weeks into the marriage, she starts clamoring for cultural conditioning.
24:55 The ideal desi girl.
25:04 And there would be so many who would actually be celebrating that we are ahead of China
25:08 now.
25:17 So, there's a lot of people who are actually celebrating.
25:44 Yes, literacy is a contraceptive, but wisdom is the best contraceptive.
26:02 So, this is exactly what I wanted to point out, what you just said, because I was looking
26:16 at some of the numbers and this is very true that as the literacy is going up, the TFR
26:22 is falling and the fertility rate will continue to fall for India also, but still we will
26:26 keep growing because of the sheer momentum which has already been built.
26:30 But what's interesting is, so I was just reading that in the UK, in 22, just post pandemic,
26:37 the lockdown era, the fertility rate has gone up after a decade.
26:43 It was 2012 or something, it was kept on falling slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly.
26:48 It was some 1.4 something and it has become 1.51 something in 22.
26:54 And there's nothing to say about the literacy rate of a developed nation like Britain.
26:58 So point is that, as you just very well mentioned, that education itself is not enough.
27:04 Given the time, freedom and the thought to wonder, people did enter into this sort of
27:14 a thing in which they thought that they are free enough to have more children and they
27:19 utilize this time to do exactly.
27:21 And this figure is also true for many other countries.
27:24 Maybe they didn't reverse the fertility rate.
27:26 Also, one more thing, it's not just that the COVID period gave them a lot of free time,
27:32 leisure time and hence the fertility rates went up.
27:36 It's not just the time factor.
27:40 Something additional as well.
27:44 Fear factor.
27:48 The more afraid you are, the more you are likely to reproduce.
27:53 The more insecure you feel, the more desperately you want to have kids.
27:59 And wisdom, spirituality alone can drive away your core fear.
28:08 So in spite of being educated, if you are somebody terrified, you will still procreate
28:15 more.
28:27 I could speak endlessly for hours, we have yet not talked of the impact of population,
28:35 human population, the population of this one species on the populations of the millions
28:42 of other species, billions of other species.
28:46 We have not talked of what it means to have one additional Homo sapiens on this planet.
28:53 What that means to the other species.
28:56 What that means to the planet itself and its entire ecosystem.
29:02 We just talked keeping human beings at the center, especially the female human being
29:10 at the center.
29:12 But if we could widen the perspective, you will find human population is the biggest
29:19 curse on this planet.
29:23 The day a human baby is born, entire existence weeps and mourns.
29:32 The day a human kid is born, rest assured, entire existence is weeping and goes into
29:39 mourning.
29:44 That's the impact of one human birth.
29:49 And still, it's all very appalling.
29:57 I'll stop here.
29:58 Thank you very much.
29:59 Thank you.
30:00 Thank you.
30:01 Thank you.
30:02 Thank you.
30:04 Thank you.
30:05 Thank you.
30:06 Thank you.
30:07 Thank you.
30:07 Thank you.
30:08 Thank you.
30:09 Thank you.
30:10 Thank you.
30:11 Thank you.
30:12 Thank you.
30:12 Thank you.