Is there going to be a "Corona Baby Boom" in Bangladesh if the isolation period continues for a long time?

Any time people are stuck at home for blizzards, shutdowns and blackouts, the speculation seems to start: Will there be a baby boom in nine months? As people are maintaining distance themselves from one another to slow the spread of covid-19, many couples under lock down find themselves closer than ever ! The notion that Bangladesh may witness a corona virus “baby boom” in nine months time. Such predictions are common after any disasters, particularly those in which citizens are ordered to shelter in place. Researchers have regularly found that large-scale disasters which have forced families and couples to stay together for extended periods of time can actually have an impact on birthrates since catastrophes bring people together. It's very likely the confinement caused by the corona virus will result in a spike of births in nine months or so. 

Let’s look back in History 

A baby boom is a period which is marked by a significant increase of birth rate. The most well-known baby boom occurred in the mid-twentieth century, beginning in the late 1930s or early 1940s and ending in the 1960s. After the World War II, young American men came back from the war, married and started having children. A lot of children! They called it a Baby Boom ! The children were called baby boomers. Basically all those born between January 1946 and December 1964. 

Bangladesh and its Demography

Bangladesh is the eighth-most populated country in the world with almost 2.2% of the world's population . According to the 2019 revision of the World Population Prospects, The total fertility rate (TFR) has been reduced by more than two thirds since Independence. Current TFR in Bangladesh is 2.1 which means that women have 2.1 children on average in their lifetime. At this TFR and without migration, country's population will eventually be neither growing nor shrinking. If we look back, Bangladesh had high rates of population growth in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then however it has seen significant reduction in its total fertility rate. Over a period of three decades it dropped from almost 7 to 2.4 in 2005-2010. The current birth rate for Bangladesh in 2020 is 17.714 births per 1000 people, a 1.8% decline from 2019.

Is there going to be a "Corona Babies" generation in Bangladesh if the isolation period continues for a long time?

Total Bangladesh is under corona locked down since 24 March, 2020. General holidays are declared by Government till 25 April, 2020 which might be extended till mid-June, 2020. So, total 77 days to make the corona shock waves down to the base line as the other countries are doing as a corona strategic move may be replicated in Bangladesh. The following reasons strongly supports Corona Baby Boom.

a.Suburb Move: About 20 million RMG workers and others who are involved in different industries as workers have already shifted to suburbs and staying at village home where corona spread is less of reported as lack of testing kit and its facility. Their passing time may be in pleasure. Moreover, Government has declared stimulus package which may give them financial security. This may create a favorable situation to bring new child in family.     

b.Urban Psychology: I am not surprised at all that couples hunkered down at home would end up participating in more indoor sport. It's long been argued that, after facing the prospect of death, there's a strong instinct to procreate. When you face your own mortality, the theory goes, your biology demands that you create offspring to carry on your genes. After a mass experience in which millions of people had faced down the prospect of death (and many had lost loved ones), you can certainly argue that there's a psychological need to affirm life by sex and by child-rearing. People in city being locked down are mostly watching TV or being available in social media counting the death tolls by Covid19. With the current trend, the death counts may reach a few thousands which may trigger to create off spring.   

c.Lack of Awareness:

No Family Planning Awareness Message by Government especially the concern Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is not disseminating in ATL, BTL or Digital. As in many news media reports, it is coming that government has made delay in preparation of corona battle. As previous it happened, hope the concern ministry of Bangladesh Government should not make the same delay and allow Bangladesh to face ‘Corona Baby Boom’ in nine months starting from Dec 2020 to March 2021.  

Yes, you can always differ the ‘Corona Baby Boom’ and ultimately welcome delay: 

However, this idea has several problems mainly that young people today can’t financially afford more children. Not necessarily! Rather, it seems that the divorce rates are picking up due to the lockdowns. For example, in China, the registration offices in major cities have been overwhelmed by divorce applications since they resumed services this month following a slowdown in domestic novel coronavirus infections. This year, the novel coronavirus outbreak disrupted the festivities and forced many to either sit idle at home unpaid or work remotely. Schools have also been canceled, causing millions of students to attend online courses from their bedrooms. Limited space at home has caused couples to lose their independent territories for months, causing interference and magnifying small problems

In Bangladesh, we also have way better access to contraceptives. So, even if people get busy due to boredom, there are plenty of options available to prevent any pregnancies to begin with. There are probably a bunch of other things that can be mentioned, but long story short many can say; no, a baby boom won’t happen.

Conclusion: 

In fact, Corona Baby Boom could increase the demand of housing, transportation, facilities and more for the increasing population. With an increase in population, the demand for food will also be increased. If Bangladesh cannot keep up with a rapidly increasing population, it could cause a food shortage and insufficient health care facilities. Without the sufficient supplies needed for the population, it could cause poor health that could lead to deaths in the population. 

Tags

#Economic impact of Covid19 #Covid19 Quarantine and Restrictions #BabyBoom, #Population #Demography #DGFP #MinistryOfHealthAndFamilyWelfare

Acknowledgement: Help taken from Wikipedia | Quora Discussion Platform | Newspaper articles