A prayer and national security

‘MAY you have seven sons’ was a familiar prayer in Punjab in early 20th-century British India, when the Empire gave stipends to families with many male children. They were potential recruits for the colonial armies. Though the British have long departed, echoes of this sentiment seem to have lingered through the century.

We are today a population of 241.5 million and a promise for more, with a growth rate of 2.55 per cent annually. Promising to some as a demographic dividend waiting to be harnessed...