Provocative ads to revive Parsis' numbers

"Good advertising has to offend someone to work," said Sam Balsara, chairman and managing director of Madison World, at an event to elaborate on Jiyo Parsi, a Rs 10-crore scheme, funded by the ministry of minority affairs, to increase the Parsis' dwindling population. A series of ads, designed by Madison, will be released under the scheme, which has a two-pronged approach of creating awareness and providing fertility treatments. The print ads, meant for Parsi publications, range from the self-deprecating to the politically incorrect. In fact, some of them might have raised eyebrows but for the fact that they are about a section of India's population whose decline in numbers is serious enough to cause concern and perhaps explain, if not justify, certain catchlines.

"Isn't it time you broke up with your mom?" asks one poking fun at 40-year-old Parsi men, who are unable to cut the "umbilical cord". Another reads, "We're superior. We're cultured. We're educated. We're about to be extinct. Get married early, have babies early ."

Dr Shernaz Cama, director of the Unesco PARZOR Project, which is implementing the scheme along with a number of community organizations and TISS, explained that the adverts weren't meant to cause offence. "We aren't trying to say that we are superior. That is just a joke," Cama said. "We regard every culture as equal but equally distinct."

While India's population has more than tripled in the last 60 years, the number of Parsis has fallen by 39% from 1.14 lakh to 69,000. There are 800 deaths for every 200 births and according to various studies, the main culprits are low fertility caused by late or no marriages, single-child families, immigration, intermarriage and divorce.

The function was attended by Bombay Parsi Punchayet president, Dinshaw Mehta, gynaecologist Dr Anahita Pandole, the project's brand ambassador Perizaad Zorabian and chief guest, HE Masood E Khaleghi, consul general of Iran. While Khaleghi urged community members to be less "individualistic" and consider the greater good, Zorabian spoke about the challenges of balancing a career and motherhood. She also suggested creating a Parsi networking site to cater to the "Facebook generation".

A few speakers blamed youngsters — particularly women —- for having unreasonably "high expectations". And there was an advertisement to drive home the point. "Will your boyfriend ever be as successful as Ratan Tata?" it asked. "Who are you to judge, Nicole Kidman?" Another played on the minority's fear of becoming extinct by showing a young woman outside the fire temple in Dadar Parsi Colony staring at a street sign that read, "Hindu Colony". The bold print above explained, "If you don't get married and have kids, this area will have a new name in your lifetime."

Besides the ad campaign, the scheme also counsels Parsi couples on the importance of having multiple children at a young age and urges them to diagnose and treat infertility. Its medical component offers treatments like In Vitro Fertilization and Intrauterine Insemination free of charge to couples whose annual family income is below Rs 10 lakh. While the non-Parsi wives of Parsi men can avail of the treatments, Parsi women, who have married outside the faith, will not benefit. "We are governed by the government's Parsi Marriage and Divorce act, which is patriarchal. Therefore, if a boy marries outside, his children are accepted into the fold whereas a girl's children are not," said Cama to explain the scheme's discrimination against Parsi women with non-Parsi spouses.

Already the project has had a certain degree of success with the delivery of a pair of "bouncing" twins and two baby girls. Over the course of the next six years, it hopes to facilitate an additional 200 live births. At an overall cost of Rs 10 crore, that is Rs 5 lakh for each precious Parsi child.

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