Good thing International Women's Day isn't March 20th!

International Women's Day is March 8 and countries around the world will be celebrating by honoring women in many different ways. In Turkmenistan, the president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, approved a measure to grant every woman in the country 200,000 manat ($10) as a "sign of respect." Women's Day had gone unrecognized under the former president because he saw it as a tie to the the old Soviet regime, so this new approach is definitely a step in the right direction. Concerning, however, is the second part of Berdymukhamedov's plan which rewards women who give birth to eight or more children! Eight seemed like a pretty random number so I am guessing it ties to the fact that Women's Day is the 8th - good thing it's not the 20th!

The so-called reward for having all these children is a one time $250 payment and lifetime access to free utilities, public transportation and dental care. Since most utilities are already subsidized and transportation is extremely inexpensive (gas is about $0.08/gallon), this pretty much equates to $250 and dental care. Given an overall population of about 5-6mm people, we can estimate about half are female. Assuming only a third come forward for their $10 and many fewer for the one time payment we can assume that about $1B will be spent on this plan. That's a lot of money that could be invested in education, women's health, micro businesses, and the like. From what I've seen from my short visit, that sort of investment would do a lot more for the development of the country and trying to spur a baby boom.