[Rousing music playing]
[Singapore Family Planning and Population Board presents]
[Happy Families]
[Rousing music fades out]
[Professional actors were used in the dramatic scenes]
[Ambulance sirens]
[Soft dramatic music]
[Narrator:] This tragic scene happens
all too often in Singapore.
A mother, worn out from having too many children
tries abortion.
But because it is badly done and she's weak,
she's beyond help by the time she reaches hospital.
[Operating room staff]
[Young children crying]
[Narrator:] Who will care for her nine young children now?
What chance do they have of growing up well and happy
without a mother's care?
[Child crying loudly]
[Water splash]
[Tense dramatic music]
[Sirens]
[Ominous music]
[Narrator:] Here is another tragedy.
When this woman found she was to have yet another unwanted baby,
she committed suicide.
And so her children are left motherless.
What a waste?
Those cases are rather extreme you think.
But in Singapore, there are thousands
of lives ruined and homes broken due to too many pregnancies.
Some of them are less dramatic, but they
are tragedies all the same.
[Soft music]
Take the case of Mrs. Wong, for example.
Why does she look sad and lonely?
She is hoping her husband will take her out with him tonight.
Will he?
No.
He is off by himself again, for the fourth time this week.
Oh well, she should be used to it by now.
[Big Band music]
It all started when 20 years ago, Mrs. Wong
was so busy having too many children
and looking after them.
She was never free to have any social life with her husband.
So he grew used to being without her.
And now that her children have grown up and gone,
she has nothing left but loneliness.
[Somber music]
[Child banging on a pan]
[Child crying]
Well, what about this?
Here is a mother worn out by having too many children.
Now she's desperate because she's
going to have yet another.
How can she look after them properly, keep them clean,
even give them enough to eat.
When they are so many, she doesn't want any more children.
What about her husband?
What a home to come back to?
What has it done to them?
[Husband speaks sternly to his family in Malay.]
[Speaking Malay]
[Wife responds angrily in Malay.]
[Husband:] [Speaks Malay]
[Wife:] [Speaks Malay]
[Husband:] [Speaks Malay]
[Wife:] [Speaks Malay]
[Crying]
[Narrator:] Only six years ago, they looked like this.
It looks desperate but there is an answer to the problem.
[Soft music]
Take this family for instance, how different they are.
It's not a matter of money.
This husband earns the same wages
as the one we've just met, but these people
planned their family.
So they could take care of each child properly.
They allowed time between pregnancies
for the mother to regain her health.
[Upbeat music]
So did these families.
They limited their children to the number
they could afford to clothe, feed, and care for properly.
Isn't that the duty of good parents?
After all, children need attention and love.
Is it so difficult?
Let's look at a bigger family this time, the state.
That may sound odd, but the nation
is the sum total of all its families
and it should be the happiest family of all.
We expect the government to look after us
just like good parents.
A few years ago, there were not enough places
in school for all our children.
Now every child has a place in school.
Every child is assured of at least 10 years education.
There are 1/2 a million children in our schools.
And for the talented ones, places in college and university
afterwards.
What about jobs?
In states like this one at Zhurong
are providing thousands of new jobs
every year for Singapore citizens.
Already 30 new factories have begun operations at Zhurong.
17,000 acres has been laid aside for industrial development.
So that eventually, Zhurong will be a new town in its own right,
with its own housing, parks, social amenities,
and transport.
[Music continues]
What about houses?
Between 1960 and 1965, 51,000 new homes
were built at a cost of $192 million.
By 1970, another 60,000 will be complete.
That's 12,000 new homes a year.
[Music]
Look at the fine new hospitals.
Look at the new roads, the parks, the community centers.
10 years ago, they didn't exist, now they're
going up everywhere.
How have they happened? Only because of planning.
The government has planned ahead.
Planned for new industries, new houses,
new schools, new community centers.
Surely, if the government, the biggest family of them
all can plan ahead and regulate its growth,
so can we in our own individual families.
The government works ahead but it can only
plan for so many new families a year.
It cannot cope with an unchecked population growth.
It is up to us to limit population growth to the level
which our island state can support,
and which we can support as parents.
After all, the government makes it easy
for us to plan our families.
It has set up maternal and child health clinics
all over Singapore to help us regulate
the number of children we have.
It's up to us to make use of these clinics
if we want the best for our children.
In all the clinics, they are kindly
understanding people who can between them
speak all our four languages.
Ready to advise and teach us in planned parenthood.
Family planning is quite simple to understand
and easy to practice with the aid of these teachers.
You will find many people of all races coming
to the clinics for help and instruction.
If families are limited to a size
that parents can't afford to bring up properly,
there will be far less misery both among parents
and children.
Instead, they will be far more happy families like these.
As the state plans for the future of the nation,
we can plan for the future of our own families.
We can enjoy life to the full if we are not
tied down and worried how to feed too many children.
We can get about more freely and enjoy all the pleasures
and amenities of our island.
Afford a few of the luxuries that make all the difference
to our lives.
[Fanciful music]
The state plans its own big family.
It works ahead and it doesn't attend
more than it knows it can do.
That way, there is satisfaction and contentment for us all.
That is why it is up to each and every one of us
to use the facilities of our family planning service.
Go to your nearest maternal and child health
clinic in Singapore.
Plan for your happy family.
You will be helping both your country and yourselves.
[Music]
[The End]
[Singapore Family Planning and Population Board]