As India’s population continues to explode and eventually surpass China’s, calls for population control measures are getting louder. But the calls are often framed as attacks between religious groups, blaming each other for the growth, as India’s historic family planning system continues to struggle and impede basic forms of development, human rights, and environmental protection.

Is there a way out?

Having Kids recently called out Trump and the United States for violating international law by pushing pronatalist policies, in contravention of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “right to found a family” provision, which requires a collective action norm to establish family planning systems that are child-focused, with parents and communities making decisions and structuring resources to bring children into the world only above certain thresholds of wellbeing, like those required by the Children’s Rights Convention.

Rather than remain mired in religious blame games that exemplify parent-centered thinking, as the population crisis only deepens, India should move towards a child-first family planning system. The solution is about loving the children we will have enough to give them what they need, right fro the start, and cooperating in a way that allows that.

Having Kids stands prepared to fund a study implementing child-first and human rights-based family planning in India, and will be reaching out to India’s leaders this year to reinforce that offer.

Want a better world? Let’s move from a family planning system focused on what parents want, to one focused on what kids need – right from the start.

That’s love – in action.