Venezuelan President says every women should have '6 children' to boost country's growth

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has urged all women to have “six children” as a way to boost the country which has reportedly seen millions of people flee in recent years to escape its economic crisis. During a televised event on March 3, Maduro made the exhortation for a government program that promotes various birth methods. This statement further reportedly faced scrutiny as only last year, a collaborated report by Human Rights Watch declared that the health system in Venezuela has “totally collapsed”. 

“God bless you for giving the country six little boys and girls,” the socialist president told a woman at the event. “To give birth, then, to give birth, all women to have six children, all. Let the homeland grow!” 

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Soon after the event, the comments made by the Venezuelan President drew criticism from the human rights activists and others who had noted that the country's citizens are already facing challenges in providing food, clothes, and health care for the family members. Amid the socio-economic battles, the founder of CECODAP, a group that defends the rights of young people, Oscar Misle called Maduro “irresponsible” because the homeland that Maduro hopes to boost does not “guarantee children their lives”. 

"It is irresponsible, on the part of a president of the Republic, to encourage women to have six children simply to make a homeland, when there is a homeland that does not guarantee children their lives," said Oscar Misle. 

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Millions of Venezuelans have emigrated

According to the United Nations, due to Venezuela's economic collapse and its deep political division, over 4.5 million people have emigrated since 2015. Recently, the UN World Food Program also said that nearly 9.3 million people and at least one-third of the Venezuelan population, are unable to meet the basic dietary needs. A housewife who was picking through scraggly vegetables at country's street market in the centre of Caracas for making soup for her sons reportedly called Maduro “cynical” and elaborated how only two days a week, the family can serve some meat and chicken. 

"You have to be very cynical to ask that we have six children," she said. "Only two days a week we can serve some meat and chicken. For years we were late having children. We had them when we thought we were better off, but in the last year we've been buying less and less food." 

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(With PTI inputs)