The government in the northern India state of Rajasthan is offering prizes to people for being sterilised. Prizes include food processors, television sets and motorbikes.
The cheapest car in the world, a NZ$3,600 Tata Nano car can also be won.
“We want to promote sterilisation,” Pratap Singh Dutter, the deputy chief medical officer of Jhunjhunu district in the north Indian state of Rajasthan said.
“This scheme is only to promote sterilisation in the district and we believe this incentive would help.”
“Everyone who gets sterilised between today and 30 September will be entered into a lottery to win prizes.”
“We felt we were falling behind on our sterilisation targets of 21,000 per year, so the district collector came up with this idea. We hope at least 6,000 people will come forward in the next three months to get sterilised,” he said.
Those who don’t win the limited number of prizes will be paid varying cash amounts in addition to the government’s Family Welfare scheme. The Family Welfare scheme ordinarily pays NZ$27.45 to those volunteering to undergo the surgery.
According to the United Nations Population Fund, each woman in India has 2.588 children.
Recently released census data records India set to surpass China and become the world’s most populous nation by 2030.
Sources