Italy’s low birth rates.

In a country that has strong view on religion, the institution of marriage, the procreation of children and staunch family values one would think that a typical Italian home would be something like-A huge dining table with cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters and of course Mama and Papa enjoying a delicious meal. However this is rarely the case in contemporary Italy. The pictures of a big happy Italian family have become something of the past.

The in last decade Italy has been the second country with the lowest birth rates in Europe after Spain. The number has come down to one child per female. This news has come as a huge surprise to Catholic Church in Italy as well as people all over the world, the main reason being that Italy is the center of the Catholic Church and also where the unit of family is important to catholic culture. The estimates say that around 25% of Italian women do not have children and another 25% have just one child. 

One of the main reasons that Italian mothers chose not to have children is due to the slow influx of money. Most women chose between working full time and having a second child. A large number of women also receive no help from their husbands with regards to childcare or running a few errands or even helping with the household chores. Hence they deliberately chose work over having a second child and bearing an additional burden. It is also said that the salaries that an average Italian earns is on the lower side, which makes child rearing a problem. There is also the issue that women when pregnant do not receive exemption from work, most of them work full time while pregnant. The maternity leave that they are supposed receive is shorter which means that they are forced to travel. The infrastructural and medical facilities that the Italian government should provide are not taken care of.   

In spite of the fact that Italy is the center of the Roman Catholic Church and also keeping in mind the church’s views on the use of contraceptive pills, birth control and condoms the birth rates in Italy is still on the low. There are several women that use birth control and there is also the easy availability of condoms.

In contradiction to this there are other catholic countries like France and Ireland that have high child birth rates. This reason has more to do with the way the government looks at the scenario, if better provisions are made for expectant mothers, the government funds day care centers and puts into force better medical scheme and facilities for mothers the birth rates might improve. Norway for example has very strong child support groups in place, they also have longer maternal leave for expectant mothers and day care is funded entirely by the government.

Children are important for the country. In India for example a large section of the population are children and youth, it has been said time and again that this is one of India’s biggest asset.  In the same way when the birth rates are low there are more elderly people in the country which means that there is less contribution to the economy.

This problem of low birth rates in Italy is being studied by people that study the public and the social policy in Europe. According to them the ‘pay-as-you-go’ pension schemes have direct impact on birth rates. It is said that the schemes makes senior citizens and retired people less dependent on their children for support, which in turn has an effect on the number of children people have. The more children people had it was considered an investment as they would not only look after them they would also be of help at home and in the family business. The pension schemes have however changed that mind set of the people.

All said and done a country with a lower birth rate do have their problems but it is better than that of a country that has high birth rates and an exploding population