The State Dowry concept for relieving population pressure
Guy Yeoman
Adapted from the book 'Africa's Mountains of the Moon' by Guy Yeoman, published by Hamish Hamilton/Elm Tree Books (1989, L25). The Institute for Social Inventions wants to help ensure that this scheme is taken up as a pilot project by one of the major aid agencies.
Summary
Current benefits of Western financial aid to Kenya are largely illusory, since any increase in national wealth benefits only a small proportion of the population, while for the majority of people it is cancelled by the high birth rate. It is suggested that switching aid funds directly to women of childbearing age in the form of State Dowry payments, as an incentive to restrict family size, is the only practicable way of rapidly stabilising the population. Such a system could have substantial welfare benefits for women and children as well as enhancing women's liberation, and it is the essential first step towards a sustainable agriculture and fundamental environmental conservation.
It is emphasised that the proposal is to be regarded as an emergency measure in the face of a crisis, to make possible the other necessary long-term measures of education and poverty reduction.
'Switching aid funds directly to women of childbearing age in the form of State Dowry payments, as an incentive to restrict family size, is the only practicable way of rapidly stabilising the population'
Biological cataclysm
In 1925 Norway had almost exactly the same population as Kenya. Sixty years later, her population has scarcely increased by half; it is now virtually stable and her people enjoy a degree of social well-being which is hardly surpassed elsewhere in the world. In the same period, Kenya's population has multiplied ten times, and in spite of all the commendable efforts of the Kenyans, no substantial impact has been made on the widespread poverty, while the country has suffered enormous environmental deterioration. Kenya, and many other countries in the Third World, are heading for biological cataclysm.
The attempts to transplant Western birth control tactics to Africa have so far largely failed. The reason for this is the widely different ethos of African society. In a situation where the male's machismo demands children, family restriction advice addressed to men is unlikely to be heeded; and if addressed to women, is only likely to be effective in a form that is going to put them in a stronger position in the face of male dominance. The problem thus becomes a question of what can be done for African women, not just to provide them with a contraceptive option, but to provide an incentive to take up this option that is stronger than the strong male pressure to ignore it.
The dowry
At present, throughout Africa, a dowry or bride-price is paid by the parents of a young man to those of a girl whom they wish their son to marry. Consequently there is great pressure to marry a girl off as early as possible, and for her to justify her 'price' by becoming pregnant as soon as possible.
There is only one time in an African woman's life when she is in a position to call the shots: this is in the pre-marital period, when the dowry is under negotiation. I suggest that she should be offered some form of personal wealth that could on the one hand give her negotiating power in the choice of a husband or, on the other, finance the option of delaying or refusing marriage. The extent of such wealth and the manner of its provision would be dictated by what was found to be necessary to outweigh the existing social pressure for her to marry early.
'Every woman on reaching the age of, say, 16 without becoming pregnant, would become eligible for a regular cash allowance. The payments would cease as soon as it was established that she was pregnant'
I propose that the State, riding in a sense on the back of the traditional dowry system, should introduce a 'State Dowry'. Under this, every woman on reaching the age of, say, 16 without becoming pregnant, would become eligible for a regular cash allowance. The payments would cease as soon as it was established that she was pregnant, but would resume again after a further period of non-pregnancy. There would thus be a strong incentive for her and her parents to delay marriage, and after marriage, for her and her husband to delay conception.
Uplifting the village economy
Would such a system be unacceptably expensive? One way of answering this is to say that it would effectually cost nothing. All that we would be doing would be to alter the direction of the flow of money. At present, money flows from the West to governments or agencies, and thence through the hands of ministries and departments, to contractors and managers who are all too often incompetent or corrupt, with little benefit to rural communities. This procedure, whereby multi-billion dollar sums are poured away, must be regarded as unacceptably expensive, wasteful and demoralising. Under the State Dowry system, the same sort of volume of cash would go directly to peasant families through post office accounts or cooperative women's groups. For the first time, the African agriculturalist (and women are the primary agriculturalists) would be free to decide for herself how she wished to be 'developed'. Whether more or less wisely saved or spent (and my belief is that rural women would spend it wisely, provided they could keep it in their own hands), the money would find its way into uplifting the village economy, which is something most aid schemes signally fail to do.
'For the first time, the African agriculturalist (and women are the primary agriculturalists) would be free to decide for herself how she wished to be 'developed' '
No money would be wasted. Cash would only be paid out where it was being successful in persuading a woman to limit her family; where the scheme failed to do this, money would not be paid out.
Dr Raymond Crotty, of the School of Systems and Data Studies at Trinity College, Dublin, has called my attention to the similar proposal in his book 'Ireland in Crisis'. His computations show that, on the basis of the current annual Western aid to the Third World, adequate funding would be available to halve the present birth-rate. This would, for example, meet the recent plea of President Moi of Kenya, to reduce the average Kenyan family from eight to four children.
Practicalities
While in the early days of such a system, women might find it difficult to ensure absolute control over dowry payments, the very existence of the scheme could act as a stimulus to the advance of feminine power and the development of women's organisations. These would eventually lead to recipients achieving a large measure of control over funds paid in their name. A possible outcome of this could be a moderation of the present oppression of women and a hardening of their attitude to such institutions as child marriage, polygamy and female circumcision.
'A possible outcome of this could be a moderation of the present oppression of women and a hardening of their attitude to such institutions as child marriage, polygamy and female circumcision'
Such an idea would obviously take off slowly and cash requirements in the early days would be small. The concept could of course be pilot-tested on a scale as small as desired in order to find out the best administrative system. It is easy to point out difficulties: the solutions must be found by trial and error. A pilot scheme could also determine the size of monthly payment needed to offset the present social pressures on women to start a family early in life and to have frequent babies.
It will be appreciated that we would in effect be creating a child allowance system without the incentive to have children that such a system entails. The funds paid to discourage women from starting a pregnancy would in fact enhance the welfare of any existing child, or a child to come in the future. The chances of the survival of such well-spaced and well-provisioned children would be much greater than is commonly the case at present. One may note that while all societies accept the concept of paying people to do things, we in the West increasingly pay people not to do things. The principle has been widely used for controlling agricultural production and for encouraging conservation policies. In the final analysis it will be seen that we would simply be reinforcing every woman's inalienable right to say no.
The actual logistics of providing the necessary family planning services are sometimes spoken of as a stumbling block, but I do not share this view. We should get away from the idea that sophisticated clinics with highly trained staff are necessary. Village shops, free dispensing machines and barefoot advisers should provide a service at the very simplest level. In the early days, we should not feel behoven to provide the near 100 per cent guarantee against conception that is the norm in the West. In the early stages the widespread adoption of the male condom would be unlikely, but recent prototype development of a female condom points the way to future possibilities.
AIDS
Any discussion of future population trends in Africa would be unrealistic if it did not take into consideration the dark shadow of AIDS that stretches across the continent as a heterosexually transmitted disease: my proposals for the dowry system should be looked at against this background. The future effect of AIDS is difficult to assess, but a recent attempt by researchers at Imperial College, London, and Princeton University, USA, concludes that is unlikely to make any major difference to current African population forecasts for several decades to come. There is to my mind one hopeful chink of light. The only measures that can be anticipated to control the AIDS pandemic are largely the same as those that will be necessary to bring about population stabilisation. AIDS will be controlled in the end by the polarisation of society according to behaviour patterns. On the one hand a sub-culture will emerge which, because it adopts a preventive approach to sex, will be virtually 'immune' to this avoidable condition. At the other pole, the disease will run its tragic course.
'AIDS will be controlled in the end by the polarisation of society according to behaviour patterns'
It should be noted that eligibility for the State Dowry would be universal, for town dwellers as well country folk, and it could be expected that it would become a major factor in promoting safe sex and the use of the male and female condom, as well as reducing prostitution and promiscuity. African urban prostitution is a response to urban poverty and male mobility and the widespread abandonment of wives and partners that has become a feature of the unstable new urban societies. By providing such women with an alternative source of finance, I believe that the forcing of them into prostitution would be reduced.
'The State Dowry would become a major factor in promoting safe sex and the use of the male and female condom as well as reducing prostitution and promiscuity'
Conclusion
All attempts to conserve the animal and plant eco-systems of Kenya will prove fruitless, and the existing structure of reserves and parks will collapse, unless a sustainable agriculture and forestry (fuel supply) can be attained. The essential precursor to this is to stabilise the human and livestock populations. All agencies, whether government or NGO, and whether concerned with social, agricultural or wildlife problems, should therefore concentrate their resources and energies on this vital primary objective.
Progress so far
The State Dowry concept received a Social Inventions Award for the best proposal to assist developing countries. This money has been used to initiate a small feasibility study in Kenya.
In the UK, Mrs Jo Hanson has been promoting the initiative through leaflets and other work.
- Guy Yeoman, Crowden Lea, Upper Booth, Edale, Derbyshire, via Sheffield S30 2ZJ (tel 0433 670284).
- Jo Hanson, 71B Effra Road, London SW2 1BZ (tel 071 733 0910).
- Raymond Crotty, School of Systems and Data Studies, University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland (tel Dublin 772941). Crotty's piece on population stabilisation appears in his book 'Ireland in Crisis' (Brandon, Dingle, 1986).
Kenya: 15 Pounds a month for life if only 2 children
Dr S. Mohindra
Guy Yeoman's State Dowry project (see above) proposes a reverse-targeted child allowance system as an incentive to women in Kenya to space their child-bearing more; these comments are by a Kenyan Indian living in Cheshire.
'If a girl from age 10 were paid say L20 a month until the birth of the first child, L15 until the second and L10 until the third, then nearly all would accept a lifelong bounty and stop at two'
The State Dowry scheme is excellent and eminently workable. A slight modification may make it simpler to administer.
If a girl from age 10 were paid say L20 a month until the birth of the first child, L15 until the second and L10 until the third, then nearly all would accept a lifelong bounty and stop at two. If a girl agreed to be sterilised after two she could be paid L15 for life plus say a L200 bonus.
Now there are 5 billion people in the world, 2 billion live in the West or China; leaving 3 billion in the Third World. Of these 1.5 billion are females and perhaps .75 billion outside the age range.
If all became eligible, thereby stabilising world population once and for all, L20 for .75 billion will cost L15 billion a month. This may seem a lot but is only about 5% of the Western defence budget or less than 1% of the total budget - a small price to pay to save the planet.
Also the transfer of this sum doubling family income will create big new markets and eliminate poverty.
The horribly rapid population growth is very soon going to create havoc. It is essential that we all agree to a common scheme and put pressure on individuals and governments to fund it. Also we should press the Tory and Labour parties to pledge not to increase child benefit after the third child to set an example.
We as individuals could start this scheme by sponsoring individual women. Even one woman covered like this in each village enjoying a doubling of her family's income would create a tremendous psychological effect. Other women in the village would postpone the second or third child in order to become eligible when more funds became available for their lifelong wealth.
As a Kenyan Indian I know of the problems that a doubling of population every 17 years in Kenya has created.
Dr S. Mohindra, 11 Eaton Drive, Alderley Edge, Cheshire SK9 7RA (tel 0625 582798).
Comment by Valerie Yule
Adapted extracts from Yule's sugggestions.
The problem is so complex that it needs tackling from many directions at once, such as:
- Guaranteed old age pensions for those with two or less surviving children;
- Encouraging more sources of honour and prestige for every man, so that they have more sources of pride than begetting a lot of children;
- Compulsory insurance deducted from wages until earners are 25, when they can collect and marry, to encourage a social custom of later marriages;
- Parents over the age of 25 to be paid monthly bonuses for the first and second children until these are aged six (when mothers may reasonably work again) but no bonuses for further children. So you are wise not to have your first child until you are 25.
Valerie Yule, 57 Waimarie Drive, Mount Waverley, Victoria, Australia 3149 (tel 807 4315).
Payments to girls in the States
An adapted extract from an American newspaper, the Sun, monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights.
Teenage girls are paid $1 a day not to get pregnant by a planned parenthood group in Denver, Colorado. All the girls have to do for their money is to show up for a weekly 'rap session' at the planned parenthood clinic.
So far, about a dozen youngsters have made a habit of picking up the $7 weekly reward for not reproducing.
One 16 year old client had an abortion when she was only 13, but now she has earned nearly $500 by keeping herself from getting pregnant again.
'Teenage girls are paid $1 a day not to get pregnant by a planned parenthood group in Denver. All the girls have to do for their money is to show up for a weekly 'rap session' at the planned parenthood clinic'
Between 30 and 50 per cent of American youngsters who become pregnant are likely to conceive again before they are 18, they note, but only one of the 18 participants in the Denver programme has had a repeat pregnancy.
The Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, Denver, Colorado, USA (tel 303 832 5069).
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