Fact Check: Video showing a woman having 24 children makes a false claim, she has only 2 kids
According to a new study published in The Lancet, India’s total fertility rate significantly declined from 6.18 in 1951
mother of 24 children
According to a new study published in The Lancet, India’s total fertility rate significantly declined from 6.18 in 1951 to 1.91 in 2021, it may also drop to 1.3 by 2050 and to 1.04 by the year 2100. By 2050, one in five Indians will be a senior citizen while there will be fewer younger people to take care of them. The Union Health Ministry’s National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) released data stating that only about one-fourth of the currently married women under the age of 49 want a second child. Experts attribute the shift to a variety of reasons, including the high cost involved in raising children, more focus on careers, and late pregnancies that are fast becoming normal.
But, recently a video showing an interview of a woman is going viral on the social media with the claim that she is the mother of 24 children. The claim in Telugu goes “24 మంది పిల్లలకు జన్మనిచ్చిన తల్లి.... యూపీకి చెందిన మహిళ 24 మంది పిల్లలకు జన్మనిచ్చింది. అందులో 16 మంది ఆడపిల్లలు, 8 మంది మగపిల్లలు. ఈమె భర్త ఒక సాధారణ టాక్సీ డ్రైవర్, టాక్సీ నడుపుకుంటూ 24 మంది పిల్లలను పోషిస్తున్నాడు.”
When translated, it claims: "A woman has given birth to 24 children. She is from Uttar Pradesh. Of them, 16 are girls and 8 are boys. Her husband is a taxi driver and is supporting the family of 24 children." This claim is virally shared on the X platform.
Telugu News website Andhrajyothy also shared an article claiming that she is only 23 years of age but has 24 children. The article goes on to claim that while she was pregnant 12 times, and gave birth to 2-3 kids each time. The article claims that the woman Khushboo Pathak lives in Ambedkar Nagar in UP.
Fact check:
The claim is False. The woman does not have 24 children, she has only 2 children. The video was shot as part of a comedy script.
When we performed a reverse image search on Google, we found a longer video on a YouTube channel named Bharat Prime. The video was uploaded on August 11, 2024. In this video, the woman reveals that it was a comedy act and the people around her are part of a team.
We found another video published on a YouTube channel named Khabar Duniya on August 18, 2024. In this video, during the interview, she states that she has two children at her home and the other 22 are in the field. They are the trees planted by her and taken care of by her as their own children. She tells people to plant trees and take care of them as their own children.
In another interview published on August 14, 2024, on the Facebook page of News24 UP and Uttarakhand, the couple clarified that they make comedy videos for YouTube videos. They were approached by a news channel and they made a comedy interview video that went viral.
Here is the YouTube channel of Khushboo Pathak. A video was published by her showing trees planted in the fields which she nurtured as her children.
The claim was viral in August 2024 and was also debunked by several fact-check organizations. Hence, the claim that the woman seen in the viral video is a mother of 24 children is false. The viral clip is taken from a comedy interview. In reality, she has only 2 children.