When Nargis, the world's seven billionth inhabitant was born in Lucknow on October 31, Rukmani, who lived almost 2000km away in a village near Coimbatore, went about her work as usual. She chopped brushwood, piled them and tied them together, balanced the bundle on her head and walked quite some distance. She had other things on her mind. Not the ballooning world population.
The mother of six children, Rukmani is over 70 years old. Ask her if she is aware that the world population has crossed seven billion and she shakes her head.
“All I know is fewer the children, the better.” Marudhamma, Balamma, Karanima, Kannaatha...some of the other women in Thennamanallur agree with her.
Says 55-year-old Palaniamma from Kalikkanayakkan Palayam, “Those days we made karupatti for a living. We travelled from one farm to another and camped there with the entire family. I had to feed four children with the little my husband earned. Life was hard. We ate just two meals a day. Rice was a luxury. Instead, we lived on ragi kazhi .” Palaniamma's youngest child is a boy. “Since our first three children were girls, my mother insisted that we try for a boy. But I regret having done that.”
Palaniamma has six siblings. “As a kid, I don't ever recall seeing my mother eat. She always set aside the smallest portion of the kazhi for herself, which she readily gave away if one of us wanted more,” she says. Palaniamma now advises her daughters not to have more than two kids. Her daughter Saradha underwent birth control operation after the birth of her second son.
The 30-year-old says, “My husband installs pandals for functions. He earns just enough for our family of four. Since we have planned right, we are confident of giving our kids the best.” Saradha says that in the past, women lacked awareness about birth control measures. “There was also pressure from family to have a boy child. But things have changed now,” she says.
Young couples in Thennamanallur and its surrounding villages are aware of the advantages of a nuclear family. Says 27-year-old Maheswari, the mother of two girls, “My husband grew up with five siblings in a small house. Sometimes, there wouldn't even be enough space for the family to sit at home together. During festivals, you can imagine how much the breadwinner has to spend on clothes for all the kids. They faced many difficulties. Having experienced all that, we decided to stop with two children. I would've been happy with one if my mother hadn't forced me to have the second child,” she says.
Along with four other women in Kalikkanayakkan Palayam, Karanima volunteered to get herself sterilised in Indira Gandhi's time.
“About 25 years ago, the kanakkupillai in our village told us about the operation. He said that those of us who were willing would be taken to the Government Hospital in Coimbatore. I had two kids then and decided to get operated with my husband's consent,” she says. Karanima vividly remembers the morning after the surgery.
From the wizened Kittan who spends his mornings at a teashop's bench, to 80-year-old Kannaatha who sits on a thinnai all day, ask anybody in the village if they prefer a large family to a nuclear family, and pat comes the reply, “ Onnu, rendu pulla poodhum saami .”
