der
             circumstances where there will be enough to go around. In contrast, under
             conditions of severe impoverishment there is not only likely to be lack of
             knowledge of family planning or access to modes of birth control, but children
             themselves are likely to be viewed as an asset. Or, perhaps one might more
             accurately say with regard to India, sons are viewed as an asset. We will have
             more to say later about the relationship between gender and population growth,
             but here we may make the obvious point that if a family seeks sons it may also
             have to bring into the world some "unwanted" daughters, thereby furthering the
             trend towards large families. Under conditions of severe impoverishment,
             attended as it has traditionally been by high childhood mortality rates, "it has
             estimated for India that in order to have a 95 per cent probability of raising a
             son to adulthood, the couple had to have at least six children."
             In general, direct efforts on the part of government to promote family
             ...