Jiyo Parsis: Saving India’s Dwindling Parsis

Is it right for the govt to fund a fertility treatment for Parsis to bring them back from the threat of extinction?

Despite their illustrious past, Parsis are dwindling so fast that Ministry of Minority Affairs and community leaders have agreed on a plan to increase the birth-rate and halt the decline (Photo: Reuters)

• Parsis are on the wane. Less than 60,000 are left in India today, three-quarters of them in Mumbai
• A third of all Parsis are over the age of 60, and many are childless
• World Bank 2014 study: Parsi women have a fertility rate of 0.8 in comparison to the national average of 2.5
• The 10 crore Jiyo Parsi scheme gives free IVF treatment to Parsis

Remember that scene in Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi, where Farah Khan (Shirin) accidentally eats her engagement ring? Well, that was pure farce; but much else in the film touches on the real predicament of the Parsis. This disproportionately successful Indian community is on the wane.

Demographically speaking, the Parsis are a complete anomaly in India.

At a time when India’s population increased by 185% (between 1951-2001) the Parsi community registered a “stunning decline” of 39%.
Today there are less than 60,000 Parsis in India, half as many as there were in the 1940s.

In desperation, the Parzor Foundation, the Bombay Parsi Panchayat and the Ministry of Minority Affairs has set up a Rs 10 crore Jiyo Parsi programme to reverse the rapid population decline of Parsis.

Fading Away

Today Parsi families such as Tata, Godrej and Wadia are among India’s top corporate dynasties, with a hand in everything from padlocks to five-star hotels (Photo: Reuters)

Under the Jiyo Parsi scheme, Parsi couples can get free in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) or any other medical treatment required to make a baby.

According to the Bombay Parsi Association, a third of all Parsis are over the age of 60, and many are childless. For every four Parsi deaths, there is just one birth.

The dwindling numbers are blamed on late marriages, or no marriage, or mixed marriage with non-Parsis. More than 30% of Parsis never marry, and given the late marriages, each Parsi woman of child-bearing age has less than one child.

Emigration is yet another reason. Hordes of Parsis have left India and settled in the West, preferring that way of life. That again follows a social dynamic. (ghar wapsi, anybody?)

The community’s exclusiveness is also contributing to its decline. Conversion is forbidden, non-Parsis are not allowed inside places of worship, and intermarriage is still frowned upon. But the cash-rich Bombay Parsi Panchayat refuses to address this issue.

Jiyo Parsis, Jiyo

The Jiyo Parsi scheme is primarily about paying for IVF for couples who have trouble conceiving and don’t have the money to pay for the treatment (a couple earning Rs 10 lakh annually will get 100% coverage, Rs 10-15 lakh 75% and Rs 15-20 lakh will get 50 % coverage).

Personally, I fail to see how with these incomes they cannot afford the treatment, but let that pass for the moment.

Around 7% of the campaign budget is set aside for a witty ad campaign which plays off common stereotypes about this tiny but influential community.

Ouch! Not so subtle! (Photo: Parsi Khabar)

The print ads, meant for Parsi publications, range from the self-deprecating to the politically incorrect (Photo: Parsi Khabar)

This one pokes fun at 40-year-old Parsi men, who are unable to cut the “umbilical cord”. (Photo: Parsi Khabar)

The ad campaign has shock value to make us realize that if we don’t change our attitude, we will not be normal as a community.
– Shernaz Cama, Director, Parzor Foundation

The program hopes to facilitate at least 200 births in the 5 years it has funding from India’s federal government. Ten children were born through the program in 2014, including one pair of twins.

The ad campaign has not gone down well with the young Parsis.

Be responsible, don’t use a condom tonight - goes an advertising campaign that is an insult to the intelligence of a community that is by no means ignorant or illiterate. No one is preventing Parsis from marrying earlier and having more children. It’s actually rather insulting to treat them as one would an endangered species, to be conserved by busybody governments.
– Sherna Gandhy, Journalist

Exactly.

Parsis are wonderful people, but surely their survival as a distinct ethnic group is a personal matter for them? Is such a scheme likely to be effective? And, should public money be spent on such an effort in the first place?

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