Leader of Iran: Government Will Pay Families to have More Children to Double the population

He plans to give $ 950 to children born before 21 March 2011, plus $ 95 for each year after that until they reach 18. They will be able to withdraw the money when they are 20. Many harbour doubts about the initiative's feasibility as well as its impact on an already high unemployment rate.

P>TEHRAN, Iran (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to double Iran's population from 75 to 150 million. Under his new plan announced on Tuesday, for each child born in the current Iranian year, which began March 21, the government will give money.

Each family will get US$ 950 deposited into a newborn's bank account. After that, each child will get an additional US$ 95 every year until the child reaches 18. Children can withdraw the money at the age of 20 and use it for education, marriage, health and housing.

"Those who raise the idea of family planning are thinking in the realm of the secular world," Ahmadinejad said during the launch ceremony. In his opinion, family planning is ungodly and a Western import.

Starting in the early 1970s, Iran waged a successful family planning campaign across the country, including banners in public health care centres that read "two children are enough."

The policy was reversed after the 1979 Islamic revolution only to be brought back ten years later when the population ballooned and the economy faltered.

Throughout the 1990s, Iran reduced population growth by encouraging men and women to use free or inexpensive contraceptives, as well as vasectomies. The government brought down the country's population growth rate from its 1986 height of 3.9 percent to just 1.6 percent in 2006.

Shortly after he was elected in 2005, Ahmadinejad announced a change in direction, saying two children per family were not enough and urged Iranians to have more.

However, the Iranian president did not say how the government would pay for the new policy.

In fact, many are concerned about its effects on employment. Iran's official unemployment rate already stands at around 10 per cent.