Pup Sales Boom for India’s One-Child Families

A recent news item in the Hindu Business Line reports that purebred puppy sales are booming in India, thanks in part to a growing trend among “educated” couples to have just one child. According to a news report from New Dheli in the Financial Times, more than 10 percent of Indian couples are opting for one child in a scramble to secure high-paying jobs and stockpile resources.

India’s Director of the Population Foundation, A.R. Nanda, says that the growing number of one-child families is “unanticipated,” and is leading to a “Little Emperor” syndrome in India as is seen in China. The number of Indian families opting for one child has doubled in the last 10 years.

Shailesh Omkar, a dog breeder in Mumai, says, “Dogs are not only effective stress busters, in single-child nuclear families, they often play the role of a companion.”

So let me get this straight … we’re having only one child because we want to maintain a certain lifestyle, and children interfere with that.  So we’re going to give the child a dog, rather than a sibling, to keep him company.

I love dogs, but it seems like priorities are getting flipped around over there in India. Is anyone else troubled about this trend?