Public outrage about the reported abuses contributed to the downfall of Ghandi's government and created a backlash against family planning programs in India that took years to overcome. A few countries, in contrast, view their fertility rates as too low and would welcome faster population growth. 58 Many governments in Europe and the former Soviet Union worry that their continued low fertility will cause rapid population aging and an eventual decline in population size. Some small oil-rich countries in the Persian Gulf also want to increase, or at least maintain, current levels of population growth. They see population growth as a way to spur socioeconomic development and reduce their reliance on foreign labor.
Labor migrants make up one-half or more of the labor force of most Persian Gulf states.
Israel also has policies to increase its fertility and rate of population growth. The U.S. Role Industrialized countries took steps during the 1960s to help less developed countries slow population growth. Sweden, the United States, and several other industrialized nations began to develop population assistance programs aimed at slowing growth. By the late 1960s, the United States began to play a strong leadership role in international efforts to reduce population growth. The primary motives were to reduce the threat of rapid population growth to economic and social development in less developed countries and to U.S. national security interests affected by international trade, political conflict, the environment, and international migration.