Thailand bets on 'magic pills' to boost declining birth rate

[snoop1130]

Thailand bets on 'magic pills' to boost declining birth rate

By Panu Wongcha-um and Amy Sawitta Lefevre

 

Public health officer gives a prenatal vitamins to a couple during a Valentine's Day celebration at the Laksi district in Bangkok, Thailand February 14, 2018. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand has tried cash bonuses and tax incentives to boost the country's birth rate, but on Valentine's Day today it adopted a new approach - handing out vitamin pills.

 

Like several other Asian countries, Thailand is ageing rapidly. Birth rates have dropped sharply from more than 6 children per woman in 1960 to 1.5 in 2015, according to World Bank figures.

 

In Bangkok, health officials handed out folic acid and iron pills in pink boxes at six locations to entice couples to prepare for pregnancy. The pills came with leaflets explaining how to be healthy in order to conceive.

 

Relationships and sex were previously a taboo subject but attitudes have changed and they are now discussed more publicly. Still, health experts say Thailand will have to talk even more about conception and birth if it wants to boost its population.

 

Together with China, the country has the highest proportion of elderly people of any developing country in East Asia, World Bank figures show.

 

The population has peaked and will begin to decrease in 2030, pointing to potential economic problems, such as labor shortages and a smaller base of income tax payers as the working-age population shrinks.

 

Successive Thai governments have introduced various schemes to encourage baby-making but, like in neighboring Singapore, whose birth rate is amongst the lowest in the world, they haven't seen much success.

 

Thailand's cash bonuses and tax incentives for people with children have done little to boost births but analysts said they weren't generous enough to prompt Thais to have more children. They didn't cover the real cost of raising a child, they said.

 

Thailand's 2015 birth rate of 1.5 per woman is below 2.6 births in neighboring Cambodia and 2.1 in Malaysia. Health experts say the birth rate needs to be 2.1 to keep a population growing.

 

'MAGIC PILLS'

 

Various reasons have been put forward to explain the falling birth rate in Thailand, from higher living costs and work commitments to the shift of the population away from farms, where big families are needed, to urban centers.

 

Some blame a hugely successful free-condom campaign in Thailand in the early 1990s – aimed at combating HIV/AIDS and which was widely copied around the world - as a factor that has reduced the birth rate.

 

"From 1970 to 1983 there were an average of 1 million Thais born each year. After that the birth rate began to decline. Now there are just over 700,000 people born each year," Kasem Wetsutthanon, director of the Metropolitan Health and Wellness Institution, told Reuters.

 

"At the moment Thai couples are having an average of 1.5 children. Ideally, it should be 2.1 if we are to maintain the population growth," he said.

 

Kasem blamed changing attitudes towards the traditional family unit for the declining birth rate.

 

"Now, many are thinking that it is a burden to have children, unlike in the past when children were important for the family."

 

Nalin Somboonying, 27, who has a four-year-old child, said some people feel they need material possessions first before starting a family.

 

"I think nowadays people want to be ready first. They feel they must have a house, a car, first before having a child," she told Reuters.

 

Satta Wongdara, 31, who with his wife picked up some of the pills at a booth in Bangkok's Lak Si area, blamed long work hours.

 

"People nowadays work more so they have less children," Satta told Reuters.

 

Still, Kasem said he hopes the pills, which he called 'magic pills' will get Thais thinking twice about pregnancy.

 

"We want to get people to have more children."

 

(Additional reporting by Prapan Chankaew and Gavin Maguire; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Neil Fullick)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-2-14

[jvs]

I think a country with so many traffic fatalities needs all least a 2.4 birthrate to increase the population.Admit i did not do the math but to make a point.

[Dave67]

How irresponsible can you get? There are enough 1 parents families in Thailand and the rest of the world, I don't any of those other counties trying to make the situation worse

[Thian]

What i see around me is that most young thai kids are girls....is that also where you guys live?

[Briggsy]

A fertility rate of 1.5 is not a problem, unless you are just concerned about tax receipts. The last thing the world needs is more people.

[wgdanson]

Amazing how a thread on increasing the Thai population, which is some thing I have been trying to do for several years, boils down to a discussion on single malts. Rock on TV guys.

[metisdead]

Off topic posts and replies have been removed, this topic is not about which is the best Scotch Whiskey.

[speedtripler]

2 hours ago, wgdanson said:

Amazing how a thread on increasing the Thai population, which is some thing I have been trying to do for several years, boils down to a discussion on single malts. Rock on TV guys.

Maybe you should have tried it when you were a few decades younger... 

[Ahab]

Is the magic pill blue in color?

 

[bluesofa]

6 minutes ago, Ahab said:

Is the magic pill blue in color?

 

You'll probably get a stiff rebuke for asking such a question. I'm sure someone will come soon with an appropriate answer.

[surangw]

same place jack got the magic beans ?

 

[blackcab]

4 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

..health experts say Thailand will have to talk even more about conception and birth if it wants to boost its population.

 

No, they need to stop talking about contraception.

 

Just give every mother of a new born Thai child 50,000 baht cash. 300,000 extra babies a year would be 15 billion paid out. That's a lot of money, but not an impossible amount.

[speedtripler]

Should have given them some porn to watch to get them in the mood... 

[gk10002000]

5 hours ago, Thian said:

What i see around me is that most young thai kids are girls....is that also where you guys live?

Not there enough to notice, but that would be an interesting statistic. 

[gk10002000]

Ageing population with declining birth rates is a big issue in Japan I believe.  Young people find it so expensive to live and eat and work is so difficult. 

[StayinThailand2much]

32 minutes ago, speedtripler said:

Should have given them some porn to watch to get them in the mood... 

Or make the Thai lasses more beguiling by increasing their bust size via the unique Thai breast-slapping method...

[scoutman360]

Maybe, here is an opportunity for Thailand to hire foreign workers again. Remember back in the 90's when a foreign work force was in high demand? Now, go to JobsDB.com and see how many companies do not want any foreigners. Companies all say "Thai Nationals Only". If the birth rate is going down, the solution is to open their doors as they did in the past.

[speedtripler]

2 minutes ago, scoutman360 said:

Maybe, here is an opportunity for Thailand to hire foreign workers again. Remember back in the 90's when a foreign work force was in high demand? Now, go to JobsDB.com and see how many companies do not want any foreigners. Companies all say "Thai Nationals Only". If the birth rate is going down, the solution is to open their doors as they did in the past.

Opening doors, opening legs 

What's the difference? 

[elephant45]

just what we need, more people. How about a plan to not have any kids for ten years???????????

[Lupatria]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Various reasons have been put forward to explain the falling birth rate in Thailand,

Except- they are running out of grandparents to take care of the kids. And what kind of education can 60 something grandparents, who went to school for 4 years only in a rural area pass to a generation of the 21st century?

[Emster23]

Folks who dreamed this one up must be drinking lots of that essence of chicken crap. Look at those IQs soar!

[lvr181]

Viagra and similar for free? Wow!  

[madmitch]

10 hours ago, blackcab said:

 

No, they need to stop talking about contraception.

 

Just give every mother of a new born Thai child 50,000 baht cash. 300,000 extra babies a year would be 15 billion paid out. That's a lot of money, but not an impossible amount.

I think you've misread the word conception!

 

And it's not just the extra 300,000 you're paying out, it's everyone giving birth, and that would be around 50 billion if their targets are met.

 

But if you throw too much money at it the Thais will be producing babies at a rate never seen before; if they'll queue for two hours for a free pack of noodles, they'll be shagging left right and centre at the prospect of 50 grand! 

 

[lvr181]

1 minute ago, madmitch said:

they'll be shagging left right and centre at the prospect of 50 grand! 

Wow! I will throw in 1000BHT to be included 'left right and center'. 

[Speedo1968]

Two days ago th headlines were........

"Mothers too young: Inequality fuels adolescent pregnancies in Thailand"

now someone is saying "not enough babies" !!!

 

If I look around the area I live in some 50km south of Khon Kaen, I see many malnourished children of all ages ( rickets / obesity / general poor physical and mental health ), children who have no one at home to go to after school, young children who are beaten, kicked, shouted at, mothers with four children under six years old, drunken parents / guardians, children with 'grandparents' who probably lived the same way when they were children and often without an education.

Incidences of coughs, colds, chicken pox, fever, stomach problems all worsened by overcrowding/ home stress issues.

A high incidence of ADHD's especially in males further complicated by family issues.

 

Mothers being too young may be caused by family / social issues ( housing etc ), all the young girl may want to do is get away from her frightening situation, getting pregnant is seen, at the time, a possible route.

 

It's a shame that people who have responded to this news article can only see the "funny" side ( sic ), not at what often really goes on in Thailand, especially in more rural areas.       No, I am not new to Thailand and have spent over 20 years working up and down the country.

[Xaos]

A fertility rate of 1.5 is not a problem, unless you are just concerned about tax receipts. The last thing the world needs is more people.

With that current irreversible fertility rate, Europe soon won't be white anymore...

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[Moti24]

Thailand bets on 'magic pills' to boost declining birth rate

 

They must be talking about the Yaba pills; anybody stupid enough to take those is capable of anything!

 

Quite a lot of Thais don't look-after the kids they already have!  Will these so-called "Magic Pills" be available to everybody or just the hi-sos!

 

[connda]

For some reason there is this built in bias that countries must Grow, Grow, Grow!!!! 

I don't see anything wrong with the idea that in 50 or 100 years that the population in Thailand (or anywhere else) is less than it is today. 

[SunsetT]

17 hours ago, Briggsy said:

A fertility rate of 1.5 is not a problem, unless you are just concerned about tax receipts. The last thing the world needs is more people.

Too many of us already destroying the Planet!

[SunsetT]

59 minutes ago, connda said:

For some reason there is this built in bias that countries must Grow, Grow, Grow!!!! 

I don't see anything wrong with the idea that in 50 or 100 years that the population in Thailand (or anywhere else) is less than it is today. 

Although economically problematic, ecologically it is essential. Our home; Planet Earth simply cannot sustain more and more people leading consumer driven Western lifestyles.