The South Asian Country with the highest birth rate is not India. Not Pakistan. Not even Bangladesh, but Nepal. The land locked, arid monarchy sandwiched between India and China. And the only Hindu country in the world.

One of the oft used arguments by the Hindu right wing is that Muslim birth rate is so high that one day Muslims would out number Hindus. Modi is famous for saying that every Muslim has 4 wive, and each wife has 4 kids. In fact it was one of his election plank arguments in Gujarat. If i am not mistaken the line he used was “Hum Do, Humare Do. Woh Paanch, Unke Pachees”

And today figures released show that Nepal outstrips both Pakistan and Bangladesh in terms of its birth rate.

So why does Nepal have such a high rate? The same reason why the BIMARU states (Bihar, MP, Rajasthan and UP – essentially the cow belt) has high birth rates. The same reason why Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and AP have low birth rates.

a) Education – the southern states have ensured that their children go to school. not just male children, but all children. The mid-day meal schemes have made sure that parents send their kids to school, not so much for education, but so that they have atleast one meal in a day.

b) Status of women – Historically the southern states have accorded women a better status in society than the north. Women writers, composers, philosophers, saints, advisors were not rare. having said that the south also gave the nation the Devdasi system

c) Caste – politial reform vis-a-vis the caste system began a lot earlier in both the south and the east, than in the north. In fact I am not quite sure whether the caste system in the North has ever been reformed.

Nepal in many ways is like Bihar. Really nice people screwed by an inefficient, morally bankrupt Government. Education and priveliges are for the elite. The poor really don’t matter. Infant mortality is high, public health systems are unheard of, and public infrastructure is non-existent.

And for the poor, one more child is

a) a better guarantee of one of their children surviving

b) one more economic unit, that earns to prevent the family from starving.