Assam Tribune
Most populous tag for India by â50
NEW DELHI, Nov 12 â India will become the most populous country overtaking China by 2050, the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) has projected. India, whose population is growing by 1.5 per cent, will have 165.8 crore people against Chinaâs 140.8 crore by that year, the âState of World Population 2008â report of UNFPA released today said.
The total fertility rate in India is 2.78 per cent while it is 1.73 in China, where the population is growing by 0.6 per cent, the report said.
Pakistan, whose population is 16.7 crore now, will have 29.2 crore by 2050. However, Sri Lanka would witness negative growth during this period. Its present population of 1.94 crore would come down to 1.87 crore then, it said.
Afghanistan, where the population is growing at 3.9 per cent now, will witness nearly three fold increase in its population, projected at 7.9 crore by 2050 from the current 2.8 crore, the report said.
Similarly, the population of Bangladesh will increase from 16.1 crore to 25.4 crore during this period. Nepalâs population will go up to 5.2 crore from the 2.8 crore now.
---
So lets do the math by 2050
Pak muslims = 300 mil
BD muslims = 230 mil
IM = 270 mil
Afghan muslim = 80 mil ( dont feed the afghans )
Total = 880 mil muslims
India = 1400 non-muslims
Nepal = 50 mil non-muslims
Total = 880 + 1450 = 2330 mil
Of which muslims = 880 mil = 37%
Any idiot still wanting Akhand Bharat
<!--QuoteBegin-G.Subramaniam+Nov 15 2007, 09:17 AM-->QUOTE(G.Subramaniam @ Nov 15 2007, 09:17 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Good news from NFHS-3 , 2005 data
nfhsindia.org
Muslim Fertility = 3.09
Hindu Fertility = 2.65
for reference
NFHS-2, 1999
Muslim fertility =3.6
Hindu Fertility = 2.8
NFHS-1, 1993
Muslim fertility = 4.4
Hindu Fertility = 3.3
[right][snapback]75259[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That was an earlier preliminary report
The corrected updated version has muslims at 3.40
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...ic-parents.html
Russia awards 'order of parental glory' to prolific parents
It was the gleaming silver gong every idealistic Soviet matron desired: the "Hero Mother" medal conferred on women who bore at least 10 children to serve the nation.
By Miriam Elder in Moscow
Last Updated: 10:53AM GMT 18 Jan 2009
Dmitry Medvedev - Russia awards 'order of parental glory' to prolific parents
Boosting birthrates is Mr Medvedev's pet cause and has prompted scorn from some quarters Photo: AP
Now, 18 years after it was discontinued, Russia has revived its policy of rewarding fertility in an attempt to reverse a potentially disastrous demographic decline.
To great fanfare, broadcast live on state television, President Dmitry Medvedev brought eight families into the gilded halls of the Kremlin and presented them with the blue-ribboned silver star of the Order of Parental Glory.
"You are setting an example for all society and you continue the tradition of parental service which has been customary in our country for centuries," Mr Medvedev told the gathering.
A sharp fall in birthrates, combined with increasing poor health, has prompted a demographic collapse which the United Nations predicts could reduce the population from 146 million today to just 80 million by 2050 - a fall in numbers which could also spell social and economic disaster.
Now the country's leadership is striking back through a publicity campaign urging people to have larger families. Posters line Moscow's streets and metro stations, reminding people of their duty to have children.
The Order of Parental Glory is reminiscent of Joseph Stalin's campaign to boost birthrates following the country's staggering human losses in the Second World War, as well as the dictator's own purges.
He introduced the Hero Mother award in 1944, to celebrate women who gave birth to, or adopted, at least 10 children.
The Order of Parental Glory has more modest ambitions: parents need only four children to apply, but they must also satisfy a host of other requirements to show that they are bringing their offspring up in a healthy atmosphere.
Eight families, representing different parts of Russia, were chosen through local competitions to receive the award, which also comes with a 50,000-rouble stipend (£1,000).
Some, like the Maximov family from the eastern region of Yakutia, came in traditional Siberian dress. Others wore military uniforms and priestly garb.
Nikolai Levyokin, 37, was chosen to represent the Moscow region. He and his wife, Ksenia, have six children, aged one to 13. He said the ceremony left him â and his children â nervous but proud. "We're doing this not only to lift Russia's demographics, but to lift the status of Russia itself," he told The Sunday Telegraph.
Mr Levyokin said his children were at first sad to learn that the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, who left the presidency in May, would not be the one presenting the award. "Then they saw Medvedev's smiling face and realised he's a good president too," he said.
Mr Medvedev said the state's campaign â which included naming 2007 "The Year of the Child" and 2008 "The Year of the Family" â was yielding results. Birth rates grew by over 8 per cent in 2007 and 6 per cent last year, he said, though most analysts in Russia attribute this to the country's improved economic situation.
They also warn that birthrates can be expected to dip as the country enters its worst economic crisis in a decade.
Boosting birthrates is Mr Medvedev's pet cause and has prompted scorn from some quarters. A radical art group called Voina took the president to task last year, staging a mock orgy in the room holding stuffed bears at Moscow's Natural History Museum - a play on the president's surname, which derives from the Russian word for "bear".
Participants in the Kremlin ceremony, due to be a yearly event, took it rather more seriously. "We are contributing to the growth of a great Russia," Mr Levyokin said.
01-23-2009, 11:57 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-31-2009, 09:05 PM by ramana.)
I couldnt find the IQ thread. This post is for G Subramaniam!
------------------------
I present a youtube video for folks to get a sense of the future as seen by some Westerners.
http://www.youtube.com/v/cL9Wu2kWwSY
It confirms your views about the Indian population with high IQ!
They have a wiki site called Shift Happens.
Ramana, could you please post this on BRF, UK thread
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/ar...ble_478352a.jpg
In the 0-4 age group, which represents the future
out of 3.5 million UK, muslims are 301k
meaning by birth, muslims are 9% of UK
In the 40-44 age group, muslims are only 3%
In BRF, Johann had confidently predicted that muslims
will never exceed 7%
France and mainstream europe is much more thoroughly
fcuked by islamic breeding
As I repeatedly said, the only way to stop islam is to counter breed 5
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_...?Submitted=true
----
Muslim population 'rising 10 times faster than rest of society'
This is from The Times. I think that newspaper gets it; I think from the forward e-mail I received this morning that many of the general public understand, but the secularists don't. And don't realise that their actions are, in part (not fully becasie they were allowed to undermind the Christian foundations of the UK) to blame.
The Muslim population in Britain has grown by more than 500,000 to 2.4 million in just four years, according to official research collated for The Times.
The population multiplied 10 times faster than the rest of society, the research by the Office for National Statistics reveals. In the same period the number of Christians in the country fell by more than 2 million.
Experts said that the increase was attributable to immigration, a higher birthrate and conversions to Islam during the period of 2004-2008, when the data was gathered. They said that it also suggested a growing willingness among believers to describe themselves as Muslims because the western reaction to war and terrorism had strengthened their sense of identity.
Muslim leaders have welcomed the growing population of their communities as academics highlighted the implications for British society, integration and government resources.
David Coleman, Professor of Demography at Oxford University, said: âThe implications are very substantial. Some of the Muslim population, by no means all of them, are the least socially and economically integrated of any in the United Kingdom ... and the one most associated with political dissatisfaction. You can't assume that just because the numbers are increasing that all will increase, but it will be one of several reasonable suppositions that might arise.â
Professor Coleman said that Muslims would naturally reap collective benefits from the increase in population. âIn the growth of any population ... [its] voice is regarded as being stronger in terms of formulating policy, not least because we live in a democracy where most people in most religious groups and most racial groups have votes. That necessarily means their opinions have to be taken and attention to be paid to them.â
Ceri Peach, Professor of Social Geography at Manchester University, said that the rapid growth of the Muslim population posed challenges for society. âThe groups with the strongest belief in the family and cohesion are those such as the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. They have got extremely strong family values but it goes together with the sort of honour society and other kinds of attributes which people object to,â he said. âSo you are dealing with a pretty complex situation.â
Above URL
Growing numbers
The total number of Muslims in Great Britain:
2004: 1,087,000
2005: 2,017,000
2006: 2,142,000
2007: 2,327,000
2008: 2,422,000
Source: Labour Force Survey
---
NRIs cannot avoid the coming global civil war with islam as muslim %
inches towards critical mass
There are only 2 methods of stopping islam
East Punjab 1947 or intense ideological attack on islam
The kafirs, hindu, jew, xtian, no longer have the stomach
for east punjab 1947 against internal muslims
Counter-Dawa carries its own set of problems
Muslims murder such people and will go on riots non-stop
Finally the most important reason that muslims are shuddi resistant
is because they think they can breed their way to victory
As Sun Tzu said,
first defeat the enemy's strategy
Since kafir societies are dying societies,
they are only capable of passive defense
By counter-breeding, the islamic plan is contained
and this gives time for kafir education and shuddi etc to work
I just found out that the fertility rate for White UK women is 1.6
and for Pakistani muslim women in UK it is 4.7
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>More than 70,000 Bangladeshis missing since 2006</b>
pioneer.com
PTI | New Delhi
Home Ministry is perturbed over the continuous reports of overstaying and <b>disappearance of Bangladeshis after their arrival in the country with more than 70,000 people travelling on valid documents still missing since 2006 in addition to illegal immigrants.</b>
Home Ministry officials said that on an average about 21,000 Bangladeshi nationals, who come with regular visas, either go missing or have been overstaying every year in the country.
This is in addition to the scores of illegal immigrants who regularly cross the porous India-Bangla border.
"<b>For overstaying, we have deported 15,000 Bangladeshi nationals in 2005, 12,000 Bangladeshis in 2006 and 11,500 in 2007,"</b> a Home Ministry official said.
In addition to that, 25,712 out of five lakh Bangladeshi nationals who came to India, did not return after expiry of their visas in 2007 while more than 24,000 remained missing in 2006 when 4.84 lakh had entered India with valid travel documents.
Interestingly, the BSF, which guards the 4,095-km-long porous Indo-Bangla border, has recently disclosed that 12 lakh Bangladeshis, who had entered India between 1972 and 2005 with valid documents, have not returned home.
The Government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to contain infiltration from Bangladesh which is posing serious security threat as probe in almost all recent serial blasts in different parts of the country has links to India's eastern neighbour, the official said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
70000 Muslim new Commie and congress voters. And after 10 years they will be 70000 x 7 = new jihadi in India.
VHP reconverts 5 lakh muslims and xtians in the last decade
however, they breed 5 crore in the same time
Counter-breeding is more effective than shuddi
Dailypioneer
Five lakh Christians, Muslims reconverted to Hinduism: Togadia
PNS | Sundargarh
Five lakh Muslims and Christians have been reconverted to Hinduism in the last decade, claimed VHP international general secretary Praveen Bhai Togadia, addressing the Dharma Raksha Nidhi programme at the Civic Centre on Sunday.
In Sundargarh district alone, out of 10 per cent Christians, nine per cent has already been reconverted to Hinduism, he further bragged. It is possible due to the Rs 100 crore annual budget service of the VHP against the 65,000 crore annual budget of Christian missionaries for proselytisation programme in India, he said.
He said India has 23,000 tribal villages, out of that Rs 100 crore budget, for free schooling of tribals students, at present 145 tribal hostels are run by the VHP where 5,000 tribal students receive free studentship and lodging and boarding. In Orissa, 1,500 such schools are being there and there are plans to expand the network. He extorted the Hindu household to give a handful of rice and Rs 1 per day to expedite the noble cause.
02-17-2009, 09:48 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-17-2009, 09:49 AM by Husky.)
Accidental beneficial side-effect of Dharmic marrying into the Religion Of "terrorism is peace".
http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?P...205&SKIN=C
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Omar Abdullah denied Umra Pilgrimage</b>
14/02/2009 03:30:35Â HK
NEW DELHI: It has been reported that Saudi Arabian Embassy in New Delhi turned down the application of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister for his Umra Pilgrimage.
The Marriage of Omar Abdullah with a Sikh woman has been cited as the reason for the denial of Visa.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Now he can spend his nights and days fearing how his non-existent jeebusjehovallah will deny him entry into non-existent pardees as well <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo-->
See also the comments on the page.
<b>Stop influx of Bangladeshis: SC to Centre</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to take all possible steps to prevent infiltration of Bangladeshis into India. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan approved of the steps taken by the government to check illegal immigration from Bangladesh<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Muslims already 8% of Austria by birth
Gates of vienna blog
--
Islam growing in Austria
Vienna â These statistics are neither secret nor confidential. On the contrary, in schools and on the streets the changes have been apparent for a while. And still: the continuously growing proportion in Austria of newborns with the Islamic faith is handled by the politicians with the utmost discretion. This profound change in society is most glaring in Vienna. This is evident in the official numbers of live births presented by Statistik Austria (official statistics office).
Vienna births 1
Only 25 years ago, in 1984, there were 89,200 newborns in Austria, of whom 78,000 were Roman Catholic and 2,200 were Muslim. This means 87.4% were Roman Catholic, 2.2% were Muslim. However, at that time â in proportion to the general population â there was already a lower number of Roman Catholics and a quite drastically higher proportion of Muslims.
And six years later, in 1990, the statistical changes became even more obvious; albeit not in all of Austria. The proportion of Roman Catholic babies is still at 84%, that of Muslims at 3.8%. However, the ratios have changed dramatically in the capital city of Vienna: 65% of newborns are considered Roman Catholic (following their mothersâ religion) and already 9% are Muslim.
Seven years later, in 1997, the proportion of Muslim newborn in Vienna is at 14.4%, that of Roman Catholics has sunk to 54.3%. Looking at Austria as a whole, the picture may be viewed as more differentiated: 76.5% Roman Catholic, 7.8% Muslim.
- - - - - - - - -
The trend continues in this direction in the subsequent years, definitively and increasingly rapidly. In 2000, in all of Austria Roman Catholics account for approximately 72%, Muslims for around 10%. In Vienna, however, live birth statistics account for merely 48%, while Muslims account for more than 18%. The latest data collected in 2008 shows that out of 77,752 live births only 49,444 were Roman Catholics (63.6%).
Does anyone have first hand knowledge about VHP/ other Hindu groups succeeding in changing demographics in our favor from Christians? I know Christians unlike Muslims don't breed like rodents.
Any data on Christian projections for India. With the economic demise and weakening of Christianity in the West, the missionary contributions should fall quite a bit.
Also sensationalist stories in Western churches about Hindu attacks may be scaring some missionaries from coming.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/f...icle6841734.ece
One of the most powerful figures in the Anglican Church believes that Africa is under attack from Islam and that Muslims are âmass-producingâ children to take over communities on the continent.
They come to Africans and say, âChristianity is asking you to marry only one wife. We will give you four!â â Archbishop Okoh described this as âevangelism by mass-productionâ.
He said: âThat is the type of evangelism they are doing: mass-production, so if you have four wives, four children, sixteen children, very soon you will be a village.â
Successful counter-breeding by Israeli jews defeats islam
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133460
sraelââ¬â¢s Future is Young: Jewish Birthrate Up, Muslim Rate Down
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Follow Israel news on Twitter and Facebook.
(IsraelNN.com)
The State of Israel faces a promising Jewish future, according to statistics released Wednesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBC). The nationââ¬â¢s population now stands at 7,456,000, three-quarters of which is Jewish.
Although the Arab-Muslim birth rate still is higher than that of Jews, the birth rate among Jews is growing while that of Arabs and Muslims is declining. The Jewish rate last year reached 2.88 children per woman, compared with 2.80 the year before. At the same time, the Arab birth rate dropped to 3.84, compared with 3.90 the previous year and 3.97 two years ago.
Quote:STEYN: Our own Greek tragedy
Mark Steyn
While President Obama was making his latest pitch for a brand new, even more unsustainable entitlement at the health care "summit," thousands of Greeks took to the streets to riot. An enterprising cable network might have shown the two scenes on a continuous split screen - because they're part of the same story. It's just that Greece is a little further along in the plot: They're at the point where the canoe is about to plunge over the falls. America is further upstream and can still pull for shore, but has decided instead that what it needs to do is catch up with the Greek canoe. Chapter One (the introduction of unsustainable entitlements) leads eventually to Chapter 20 (total societal collapse): The Greeks are at Chapter 17 or 18.
What's happening in the developed world today isn't so very hard to understand: The 20th century Bismarckian welfare state has run out of people to stick it to. In America, the feckless insatiable boobs in Washington, Sacramento, Albany and elsewhere are screwing over our kids and grandkids. In Europe, they've reached the next stage in social democratic evolution: There are no kids or grandkids to screw over. The United States has a fertility rate of around 2.1, or just over two kids per couple. Greece has a fertility rate of about 1.3: 10 grandparents have six kids have four grandkids - i.e., the family tree is upside down. Demographers call 1.3 "lowest-low" fertility - the point from which no society has ever recovered. And compared to Spain and Italy, Greece has the least worst fertility rate in Mediterranean Europe.
So you can't borrow against the future because, in the most basic sense, you don't have one. Greeks in the public sector retire at 58, which sounds great. But, when 10 grandparents have four grandchildren, who pays for you to spend the last third of your adult life loafing around?
By the way, you don't have to go to Greece to experience Greek-style retirement: The Athenian "public service" of California has been metaphorically face-down in the ouzo for a generation. Still, America as a whole is not yet Greece. A couple of years ago, when I wrote my book "America Alone," I put the Social Security debate in a bit of perspective: On 2005 figures, projected public pensions liabilities were expected to rise by 2040 to about 6.8 percent of GDP. In Greece, the figure was 25 percent. In other words, head for the hills, Armageddon, outta here, The End. Since then, the situation has worsened in both countries. And really the comparison is academic: Whereas America still has a choice, Greece isn't going to have a 2040 - not without a massive shot of Reality Juice.
Is that likely to happen? At such moments, I like to modify Gerald Ford. When seeking to ingratiate himself with conservative audiences, President Ford liked to say: "A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have." Which is true enough. But there's an intermediate stage: A government big enough to give you everything you want isn't big enough to get you to give any of it back. That's the point Greece is at. Its socialist government has been forced into supporting a package of austerity measures. The Greek people's response is: Nuts to that. Public sector workers have succeeded in redefining time itself: Every year, they receive 14 monthly payments. You do the math. And for about seven months' work - for many of them the workday ends at 2:30 p.m. When they retire, they get 14 monthly pension payments. In other words: Economic reality is not my problem. I want my benefits. And, if it bankrupts the entire state a generation from now, who cares as long as they keep the checks coming until I croak?
We hard-hearted, small-government guys are often damned as selfish types who care nothing for the general welfare. But, as the Greek protests make plain, nothing makes an individual more selfish than the socially equitable communitarianism of big government. Once a chap's enjoying the fruits of government health care, government-paid vacation, government-funded early retirement, and all the rest, he couldn't give a hoot about the general societal interest. He's got his, and to hell with everyone else. People's sense of entitlement endures long after the entitlement has ceased to make sense.
The perfect spokesman for the entitlement mentality is the deputy prime minister of Greece. The European Union has concluded that the Greek government's austerity measures are insufficient and, as a condition of bailout, has demanded something more robust. Greece is no longer a sovereign state: It's General Motors, and the EU is Washington, and the Greek electorate is happy to play the part of the United Auto Workers - everything's on the table except anything that would actually make a difference. In practice, because Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland are also on the brink of the abyss, a "European" bailout will be paid for by Germany. So the aforementioned Greek deputy prime minister, Theodoros Pangalos, has denounced the conditions of the EU deal on the grounds that the Germans stole all the bullion from the Bank of Greece during the Second World War. Welfare always breeds contempt, in nations as much as inner-city housing projects. How dare you tell us how to live! Just give us your money and push off.
Unfortunately, Germany is no longer an economic powerhouse. As Angela Merkel pointed out a year ago, for Germany, an Obama-sized stimulus was out of the question simply because its foreign creditors know there are not enough young Germans around ever to repay it. Over 30 percent of German women are childless; among German university graduates, it's over 40 percent. And for the ever dwindling band of young Germans who make it out of the maternity ward, there's precious little reason to stick around. Why be the last handsome blond lederhosen-clad Aryan lad working the late shift at the beer garden in order to prop up singlehandedly entire retirement homes? And that's before the EU decides to add the Greeks to your burdens. Germans, who retire at 67, are now expected to sustain the unsustainable 14 monthly payments per year for Greeks who retire at 58.
Think of Greece as California: Every year an irresponsible and corrupt bureaucracy awards itself higher pay and better benefits paid for by an ever-shrinking wealth-generating class. And think of Germany as one of the less profligate, still just about functioning corners of America such as my own state of New Hampshire: Responsibility doesn't pay. You'll wind up bailing out anyway. The problem is there are never enough of "the rich" to fund the entitlement state, because in the end, it disincentivizes everything from wealth creation to self-reliance to the basic survival instinct, as represented by the fertility rate. In Greece, they've run out Greeks, so they'll stick it to the Germans, like French farmers do. In Germany, the Germans have only been able to afford to subsidize French farming because they stick their defense tab to the Americans. And in America President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are saying we need to paddle faster to catch up with the Greeks and Germans. What could go wrong?
http://www.washingtontimes.com//news/201...edy/print/
[url="http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=2261"] Russia Subtracted Most People; India Added Most.[/url] Quote:In 2006, Russia lost 732,000 people. Donââ¬â¢t bother searching for them, because most of them were never born. Its neighbor Ukraine also misplaced 361,000 folk.
On the other hand, Indians got busy: in 2006, they added just over 17 million new tax deductions. This beat China by a lot: through its enlightened mandatory abortion policy, China lagged about 10 million behind India, adding just 7 million.
The USA did OK for itself, coming in at number four in the race to add mouths to feed, adding about 3 million. But countries in and around Eastern Europeââ¬âRomania, Poland, Bulgaria, Moldova, Georgia, Hungary, Serbia, Lithuania, Lativa, Montenegro, Armenia, Estonia, Czech Rep. etc.ââ¬âall lost population. These countries were just behind Russia and Ukraine, losing an average 30,000 for 2006. Germany also gave up about 11,000.
All other countries but these added population.
....
Quote:On the other hand, Indians got busy: in 2006, they added just over 17 million new tax deductions. This beat China by a lot: through its enlightened mandatory abortion policy, China lagged about 10 million behind India, adding just 7 million.
Forced abortions are an "enlightened" practice now?
Environmentalist nuts seem to love every other species except humans themselves.
From Jihadwatch
"I'd go so far as to say that polygamists here (in France) are breeding for cash"
As well as in service of a supremacist agenda. "Polygamists 'breeding for cash,'" from AP, May 2 (thanks to all who sent this in):
The burqa, or face-covering veil, is getting all the attention in the debate over Muslim immigrants in France. But another controversial tradition among some immigrants is less noticed and far more widespread: Polygamy.
The issue resurfaced last week after a woman received a traffic citation in the western city of Nantes for driving with a veil over her face. Officials then accused her husband of having at least three other wives, and said he may be profiting from them financially while the state pays the bill.
Polygamy is one of several issues, like forced marriage or genital mutilation, that France and other European nations face, as immigrants arrive with customs that conflict with the law of the land. But experts say polygamy in France can also be linked to fraud, where husbands hijack a generous social welfare system to line their pockets with state funds from each of their wives.
"They practice polygamy just for that," said Jean-Marie Ballo, founder of an association that helps women escape from polygamous situations, Nouveaux Pas, or New Steps. "I'd go so far as to say that polygamists here (in France) are breeding for cash."
Ballo said he's even aware of cases where a legal wife's papers are used for hospital care for a second - a health risk as medical records intermingle.
It's hard to count how many polygamous families live in France because of the secrecy of the practice. But the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights in a 2006 report made a minimal estimate of 16,000 to 20,000 polygamous families in France, or some 180,000 people, including children. That compares to fewer than 2,000 women who are thought to wear burqa-style garments.
For decades, polygamy was legal in France for immigrants arriving from any of about 50 countries where it is legally recognised. Historically, taking numerous wives was either a social and economic necessity in poor countries with high death rates, or a sign of external wealth or male domination.
France banned polygamy in 1993. At the same time, it launched a process of "decohabitation" to help multiple wives trapped in small apartments with numerous children to move into their own homes. Experts say that system has been largely successful.
But abuses thrive. Especially vulnerable are women who arrived in France after 1993 - often here illegally and, therefore, with limited means to extricate themselves....
Chantal Brunel, a lawmaker from the governing conservative UMP party, called last weekend for a region-by-region examination of the family subsidies program to stop corruption by men profiting from state aid to illegal wives. Brunel, who has written a book about violence against women, said she has polygamous families in her district east of Paris "and since 2004-2005 I have asked that the state stop closing its eyes."...
Other countries in Europe also struggle with polygamy. Fines and prison sentences, in some cases up to seven years, are the norm for those convicted of polygamy in Europe. An exception is Norway. In France, marriage to more than one person is punishable by a year in prison and a 45,000 (almost $60,000) fine.
However, the law is being challenged in Ireland. And in Cyprus, with a 5-year prison term, the court can take into account arguments that the accused's culture or religion permits polygamy.
Carina Hagg, a Swedish lawmaker for the opposition Social Democrats, warns against mixing notions of polygamy and culture.
"You have to be careful not to make it an issue about ethnicity," she said. "Fundamentally it's about women's rights."...
Ballo, whose Malian father and grandfather were both polygamous, said he helped "decohabit" 12 households with 26 wives and 145 children in Les Ulis, south of Paris, where his group is based.
The human rights commission report notes that "there is, of course, no question of generalising and considering all polygamous men as executioners."
Ballo is more cynical: "There are always people in life who defend hell."
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