While the world's most populous nation China has restrictions on the number of children a couple can have, India — which is fast catching up with China on people count — doesn't impose any such law on its citizens.

As a result, many Indian families, still wrapped in the shackles of patriarchy, don't see it as a problem to keep producing children until a boy is born. And sometimes, an entire village has to intervene to halt the juggernaut.

A couple in the western Indian state of Gujarat, which is also Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, had to be stopped by locals from having their eighteenth offspring, the Times of India reported.

Hailing from a tribal area in Gujarat, this farmer couple has one son and 16 daughters, but their pursuit for a second male child towered over their discretion. Until, "the villagers persuaded us to put a full stop to our family expansion," the 44-year-old father told the publication.

“First, I wanted a son for our old age. After I fathered so many girls, I desperately wanted sons to look after my girls. But that didn’t happen," he added.

But on persuasion of villagers, he and his 40-year-old wife have finally embraced family planning.

All's well that ends well.