Editing Sterilization (medicine) (section)

====India====
Another country with an overpopulation problem is [[India]].  Medical advances in the past fifty years have lowered the death rate, resulting in large population density and overcrowding.  This overcrowding is also a result of poor families' lack of access to [[birth control]].  Despite this lack of access, sterilization incentives have been in place since the mid-1900s.  In the 1960s, the governments of three Indian states and one large private company offered free [[vasectomies]] to some employees, occasionally accompanied by a bonus.<ref>Enke, Stephen. "The Gains to India from Population Control: Some Money Measures and Incentive Schemes." ''The Review of Economics and Statistics''. 42.2 (1960): 175–81.</ref>  In 1959, the second [[Five-Year Plans of India|Five-Year Plan]] offered medical practitioners who performed vasectomies on low-income men monetary compensation.  Additionally, those who motivated men to receive vasectomies, and those men who did, received compensation.<ref name="Seeking Zero Growth"/>  These incentives partially served as a way to educate men that sterilization was the most effective form of [[Birth control|contraception]] and that vasectomies did not affect sexual performance.  The incentives were only available to low-income men.  Men were the target of sterilization because of the ease and quickness of the procedure, as compared to sterilization of women.  However, mass sterilization efforts resulted in a lack of cleanliness and careful technique, potentially resulting in botched surgeries and other complications.<ref name="Seeking Zero Growth"/>  As the [[Total fertility rate|fertility rate]] began to decrease (but not quickly enough), more incentives were offered, such as land and fertilizer.  In 1976, compulsory sterilization policies were put in place, and some disincentive programs were created to encourage more people to become sterilized.  However, these disincentive policies, along with "sterilization camps" (where large amounts of sterilizations were performed quickly and often unsafely), were not received well by the population and gave people less incentive to participate in sterilization.  The compulsory laws were removed.  Further problems arose, and by 1981, there was a noticeable problem in the preference for sons.  Since families were encouraged to keep the number of children to a minimum, [[son preference]] meant that female fetuses or young girls were killed at a rapid rate.<ref name="Seeking Zero Growth"/>  The focus of population policies has changed in the twenty-first century.  The government is more concerned with empowering women, protecting them from violence, and providing basic necessities to families.  Sterilization efforts are still in existence and still target poor families.