home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
TIME: Almanac 1990
/
1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
/
time
/
010289
/
01028900.031
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1990-09-22
|
2KB
|
44 lines
PLANET OF THE YEAR, Page 50The Good News: Thailand Controls a Baby Boom
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.
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.
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.
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).
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."