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TIME: Almanac 1990s
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<text id=89TT0031>
<title>
Jan. 02, 1989: Thailand Controls A Baby Boom
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
Jan. 02, 1989 Planet Of The Year:Endangered Earth
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
PLANET OF THE YEAR, Page 50
The Good News: Thailand Controls a Baby Boom
</hdr><body>
<p> He is a champion of condoms, a pusher of the Pill, a voice
for vasectomies -- and a major reason that the annual rate of
Thailand's population growth was cut in half, from 3.2% to 1.6%,
in just 15 years. And while he sometimes comes across as an
energetic public relations man with a bagful of gimmicks, Mechai
Viravaidya, 47, the engineer of Thailand's remarkable drive to
curb its birthrate, regards population control as serious
business.
</p>
<p> In 1974 Mechai, a former government economist, launched a
private nonprofit organization, now known as the Population and
Community Development Association (P.D.A.), to foster family
planning and distribute birth-control devices. With growing
encouragement and financial support from the government, the
Bangkok-based P.D.A. has made population control a national
mission. Today some 70% of Thailand's couples practice family
planning. Mechai estimates that without his program Thailand's
population, currently 54 million, would have grown to 64
million.
</p>
<p> He began by touting condoms -- now commonly called mechais
in Thailand. "Wherever there was a crowd, we would be there
handing them out," says Mechai. "Movie theaters, traffic jams --
we tried to turn every event into a family-planning session."
With humor and showmanship, Mechai has judged condom-blowing
contests and has shown how to use condoms as tourniquets. Each
New Year's Eve, the P.D.A. gives traffic police boxes of
prophylactics to distribute in a "cops and rubbers" program.
</p>
<p> While continuing to hand out condoms, Mechai has helped
couples move on to more sophisticated forms of contraception. He
put birth-control "supermarkets" in bus terminals, offering
Pills, IUDs and spermicidal foam as well as condoms. Mechai
also opened vasectomy clinics across the country, including one
in Bangkok's massage-parlor district. Each year on the King's
birthday, the P.D.A. offers free vasectomies (normal price:
$20).
</p>
<p> The campaign has brought about a profound change in the way
Thais look at their families. The proof is in millions of people
like Boonya Nuenmun, 36, a farmer in Korat province. Though his
parents had nine children, Nuenmun says, "I've got two
daughters, and that's enough already. I've been practicing birth
control for years."
</p>
</body></article>
</text>