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UTTAR PRADESH, India (CNN) -- On World Population Day this year India's new health and welfare minister came out with an idea on how to tackle the population issue: Bring electricity to every Indian village so that people would watch television until late at night and therefore be too tired to make babies.
Could the remote control be a birth control method?
1 of 2 That statement raised eyebrows across this vast country -- but what are the realities and reactions from families who make up the second largest population in the world?
At 80-plus years old Omar Mohammed has never heard of population control.
He lives in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh and has certainly done his part in contributing to India's burgeoning population.
"Now you see I have 24 children, 13 boys and 11 girls," Omar says.
Omar believes only God can decide how many children you should have. He lifts his hands to the sky and says: "This is His command. It's not my doing, it's His doing."
On the other hand there's the Arora family in the capital city of Delhi. They have two children.
"You can't even get enough water or electricity now. So its advisable that people have only two children and then they should stop having more kids." mother Anjana Arora says.
The Aroras know a little something about population issues; their daughter was given the official title of India's one billionth citizen when she was born in 2000.
With family planning and free contraceptive programs the Indian government has long tried to encourage families to have only two children.
Overall government statistics show the birth rate is coming down. The numbers show 14 of India's 35 states have reached the two child per family target.
But the push is failing in other states, especially in villages and among the poor and illiterate where the fertility rate is as high as 3.5 children per woman. source: cnn.com