During discussions, the government of Haryana expressed interest in refining a policy aimed at correcting the skewed sex ratio. The policy involved financial incentives for families that have daughters and opt for sterilizationâeffectively, though not overtly, paying people to have daughters.
I realise this is not central to the post since by the sound of it you ended up not working on this, but what is this about? Who gets paid financial incentives when? How does this end up paying people to have daughters?
Several Indian states have policies that offer payments to families that have daughters, sometimes restricting it to below-poverty-line families. Sometimes the ongoing payments are conditional on being in school, not getting married early, etc. It looks like the Haryana policy no longer requires sterilization, but it used to. Hereâs an excerpt from a paper on the previous version, Devi Rupak:
âIn light of these trends, Devirupak seeks to promote a one-child norm and to decrease the sex ratio at birth. It provides monthly benefits, for a period of 20 years, to couples who become sterilized after having one child (of either sex), or two girls (and no boy). The incentive offered to parents of one girl is larger than the amount that parents of one boy or two girls receive. Couples who remain childless, have a boy and a girl, or have more than two children receive nothing.â
(That policy had dual goals of reducing fertility and improving the skewed sex ratio and ended up making the sex ratio more male-skewed. That part was just bad design and is fixable. But even if fixed, I donât love this approach to the problem.)
I realise this is not central to the post since by the sound of it you ended up not working on this, but what is this about? Who gets paid financial incentives when? How does this end up paying people to have daughters?
Several Indian states have policies that offer payments to families that have daughters, sometimes restricting it to below-poverty-line families. Sometimes the ongoing payments are conditional on being in school, not getting married early, etc. It looks like the Haryana policy no longer requires sterilization, but it used to. Hereâs an excerpt from a paper on the previous version, Devi Rupak:
âIn light of these trends, Devirupak seeks to promote a one-child norm and to decrease the sex ratio at birth. It provides monthly benefits, for a period of 20 years, to couples who become sterilized after having one child (of either sex), or two girls (and no boy). The incentive offered to parents of one girl is larger than the amount that parents of one boy or two girls receive. Couples who remain childless, have a boy and a girl, or have more than two children receive nothing.â
(That policy had dual goals of reducing fertility and improving the skewed sex ratio and ended up making the sex ratio more male-skewed. That part was just bad design and is fixable. But even if fixed, I donât love this approach to the problem.)