Is two still better than too many?
TWO IS better than too many. If you lived in the 1980s then surely you remember this most effective campaign slogan by the National Family Planning Board (NFPB), as it tried to tame population growth by insisting that, quite literally, two is the optimum number of children that you should aspire to have.
The campaign was memorable and effective, not just because of its simple, easily relatable message, but also because of the powerful and impactful visuals that accompanied the campaign. Who can forget that tearful commercial of Judy Johnson, a married woman with her two children, opening the door to find Bev Brown, a destitute woman with four children hanging off her hips, begging for assistance? The scene where Mrs Johnson recognises the mendicant Brown as her old schoolmate and one of the brightest pupils in the school is gut-wrenching. The ad ends with Johnson putting some small change in her old friend’s hands and wishing her well.
WORKED ALMOST TOO WELL
As a young, impressionable preteen back then I was jolted by these ads. I think it contributed to me being afraid to look too longingly at any of the young girls of the day, for fear my stares may impregnate one of them. The campaign’s goal was simple – to show the disadvantages of unplanned parenthood and the bitter consequences of not being able to cope financially to satisfy your family’s needs. The ads ran from 1983 to 1987, coming out of the 1983 National Population Policy’s mandate to reduce the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) from six children per woman in the 1960s, to four in the 1970s and two in the 1980s. Too rapid a growth in the population, it was argued, would have devastating consequences on the spiritual, moral, economic and social conditions of the country. Accompanying the public education campaign was an equally important attempt to promote contraceptive use, especially among adolescents.
To say that the campaign was a success would be an understatement. Between 1975 and 2008, Jamaica’s TFR had been reduced from 4.5 births per female to 2.4 and by 1993, the contraceptive prevalence rate had increased to 62 per cent, up from 51 per cent in 1983 and 38 per cent in 1975.
FEWER BABIES BEING BORN
So last Sunday, when The Gleaner reported that the NFPB had announced that our TFR was now at 1.9 and fewer babies were being born in Jamaica, I was not at all surprised. After all, I don’t think I’m the only one who has been scarred and left“gun-shy”by that campaign. But in conversations with the ladies at a fish fry this week, I was intrigued to hear the myriad of reasons being offered up to explain these numbers.
Apparently, I’m being told, good men are short nowadays. Standing 6’ 2”, I was initially worried that I fell outside of that category, but“good”, as I soon learnt, referred to men who were educated, ambitious, have a career, are driven, intelligent, and can hold a conversation beyond a few WhatsApp emojis. It also doesn’t hurt to be good looking but increasingly, I’m told, that is a niceto-have rather than a prerequisite. So why, I asked, are such men in such short supply, given that I see as many women out and about as I do men? I was told that, outside of those male-dominated entities where I’ve worked, namely the military and law enforcement, women far outnumber men, not only in terms of quantity, but also quality as they hold most managerial and highlevel positions. I could not argue that point as Jamaica has developed quite a reputation for advancing women into senior managerial roles. Furthermore, they added, far fewer women are getting married nowadays, as again, all the good men are either taken or “uninterested”. I’ll leave “uninterested” up to your interpretation.
To be fair, I agree that the quality of men today leaves a lot to be desired. After all, during my time in the JDF, I remember lamenting how much more driven, prepared and academically inclined the female recruits seemed to be. But it still didn’t answer the question of why women are having such fewer children than in the wild-wild-west days of the ‘60s and ‘70s. In fact, given that these declines are happening globally, are you also suggesting that good men are short all over the world? Well, that’s the rub, they pointed out. As women become more educated, more empowered, more employed and more employable, they also become more selective in when they decide to have children, and who they choose to have children with.
AN AGEING POPULATION?
Now from the perspective of women’s empowerment and their freedom to choose how and when to have children, I can certainly agree that these are positive steps in the right direction. Except that, as Sexual and Reproductive Health and Epidemiology Expert, Professor Affette McCaw-Binns, noted during last week’s announcement, Jamaica’s current fertility rate of 1.9 is below the replacement level of 2.1, which is the average number of children that women would need to produce to keep the population constant. Below that 2.1 TFR, we run the risk of rapidly becoming an ageing population with several accompanying consequences, including a shrinking labour force, an increased per capita burden of taxation, decreased innovation, a slower economy and greater healthcare demands due to an abundance of geriatric diseases. Japan’s TFR of 1.4 in the early 2000s, for example, meant that at one point, sales of adult diapers exceeded those of baby diapers. Not good.
So how do we now auto-correct having gone too far left? Well for one, addressing an ageing population due to a low TFR requires a multifaceted approach involving well-thought-out social, economic, and policy measures. These could very well include implementing policies that encourage and support families such as subsidised childcare, paid parental leave, greater investment in early childhood education, flexible work arrangements and financial incentives for having children. There may also need to be the 2024 answer to Two is Better than Too Many, challenging established norms and perceptions about family size, career aspirations, and gender roles. Regardless, reversing a declining fertility rate is a complex and long-term process that requires sustained effort and commitment from policymakers, stakeholders, and society as a whole.
But none of this matters if we haven’t yet recognised that we have a problem in the first place. And that’s what I didn’t hear enough of last week. Is a TFR of 1.9 worrying anyone? Or am I the only one still traumatised by Bev Brown and her four kids?
Major Basil Jarrett is a communications strategist and CEO of Artemis Consulting, a communications consulting firm specialising in crisis communications and reputation management. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Threads @IamBasilJarrett and linkedin.com/ in/basiljarrett. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com