Satara (Maharashtra): Twenty-six-year-old Nilesh and his wife Rajlakshmi have just embarked on their honeymoon. Nothing unusual you'd say for a couple who had been married for just over a week, but this is their second honeymoon!
What's more, this second honeymoon is courtesy the district administration and is all part of a uniquely labelled family planning scheme.
This is how the scheme works:
If Nilesh and Rajlakshmi put off having their first baby by two years they will get Rs 5,000 for a second honeymoon.
If they put off their first baby by three years, they will get Rs 7,500, an incentive the government hopes will help them plan their lives.
"Between the two of us, we can earn Rs 8,000 to Rs10,000. Once the baby comes after two years our expenses will increase."
However, the second honeymoon package was not born out this concern of Nilesh's. The package, funded by the Central Government, was born out of a far more pressing need.
Says Satara District Health Officer, Dr Vijay Singh Mohite, "The decadal population growth rate of Satara district is around 15 and the decadel death rate is around seven. So if you bring down the growth rate by seven, it equalizes the decadal rate, then the population will be stabilised."
Besides this, an alarming 85 per cent of the 25,000 couples who wed in Satara last year conceived within the first year of marriage.
It would seem that life in Satara is slow, but deceptively so, for Satara's family planning program is on an overdrive.
So be it Satara city or rural Satara, newly married couples are sharing responsibility in planning their family, never mind that the second honeymoon is at best two years away.
Satara (Maharashtra): Twenty-six-year-old Nilesh and his wife Rajlakshmi have just embarked on their honeymoon. Nothing unusual you'd say for a couple who had been married for just over a week, but this is their second honeymoon!
What's more, this second honeymoon is courtesy the district administration and is all part of a uniquely labelled family planning scheme.
This is how the scheme works:
If Nilesh and Rajlakshmi put off having their first baby by two years they will get Rs 5,000 for a second honeymoon.
If they put off their first baby by three years, they will get Rs 7,500, an incentive the government hopes will help them plan their lives.
"Between the two of us, we can earn Rs 8,000 to Rs10,000. Once the baby comes after two years our expenses will increase."
However, the second honeymoon package was not born out this concern of Nilesh's. The package, funded by the Central Government, was born out of a far more pressing need.
Says Satara District Health Officer, Dr Vijay Singh Mohite, "The decadal population growth rate of Satara district is around 15 and the decadel death rate is around seven. So if you bring down the growth rate by seven, it equalizes the decadal rate, then the population will be stabilised."
Besides this, an alarming 85 per cent of the 25,000 couples who wed in Satara last year conceived within the first year of marriage.
It would seem that life in Satara is slow, but deceptively so, for Satara's family planning program is on an overdrive.
So be it Satara city or rural Satara, newly married couples are sharing responsibility in planning their family, never mind that the second honeymoon is at best two years away.