The Numbers Game

When a species begins to overwhelm its resource base, it is destined to go down. Having decided as a young woman of child-bearing age not to bring a child into this world, Purva Variyar asks whether Homo sapiens is headed down that road.

- Purva Variyar

Recently some friends excitedly shared the fact that they had given birth to healthy babies. I was and am overjoyed for them.

But the planet-lover in me cringes at the news of every new human birth. I think to myself, “Why could they not just adopt? Could they not see that the planet is folding like a flimsy sheet of paper under the exploding human population?” By some estimates there are around 30 million orphans in India alone, including those who do not fall under the legal adoption umbrella. What crosses the minds of the millions worldwide who choose to have children? I hasten to add that I am not talking about those who have no access to contraceptives, education and reproductive rights. It’s those who have the luxury of choice and yet choose to have several children that concern me.

I have decided not to have a biological child of my own. As a young woman some might say I am fighting my evolutionary instinct to propagate my genes. I do know the concept goes against the cultural, traditional and religious ideals that we have been taught, I also know that some consider my decision unnatural.

The way I see it, however, Homo sapiens cut the symbiotic cord with nature, long ago.