[tn13]

When it comes to development rhetoric I think it is totally influenced by western thought. India is poor by western standards no doubt. But if India is poor and malnourished then how come its population continues to explode ?

We need to realize that what people think of "prosperity" may not be same everywhere.

[Kluny]

I'm not sure which way you're trying to argue, but Bill Gates's letter also did a great job of explaining why poor and undernourished populations continue to explode. The short version is that when each child has a low chance of surviving to adulthood, parents have more to hedge the chance the one of their offspring will make it. In addition, in poor countries where adults can't count on social security, they have children instead of a retirement policy.