Bhutan rolls out birthrate initiative - Taipei Times

‘EXISTENTIAL CRISIS’?

Bhutan is worried about falling births and outward migration, but some say a declining population should not automatically be seen as a crisis

AFP, THIMPHU

Bhutan is offering families cash incentives to have more children as the tiny Himalayan kingdom grapples with a nosediving birthrate and a growing exodus of young people seeking opportunities abroad.Annual births have dropped by more than one-quarter over the past decade, compounding the country’s loss of youngsters to migration.Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay has repeatedly rung the alarm over the population slump, calling it an “existential” crisis, the state’s Bhutan Broadcasting Service said.

Bhutanese students rest at the Royal University of Bhutan in Thimphu on Aug. 23, 2018.