Health Minister of Congress-ruled Rajasthan Raghu Sharma on Wednesday said ‘ It is time when the country needs to think about the slogan, “Hum Do, Hamare Ek” (one child per family). He added, “In today”s (Covid) pandemic era, whether it is about vaccination or development, growing population has an adverse impact on everything. It is time to think about how to control population so that future generations get better education, health and other facilities for a better lifestyle.” The minister said this when asked about his views on the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government”s draft bill proposing to control population.
Uttar Pradesh government brought the draft bill as it failed to provide good governance and maintain law and order .
According to the UP draft bill, people having more than two children in the state will be debarred from contesting local body polls, applying for government jobs or receiving any kind of subsidy.
The BJP-ruled Assam government has also announced to bring a policy in population control.
Assam has proposed a law that would make only those with upto two children eligible for goverment jobs and welfare schemes. Assam’s chiefminister Hemant Biswa Sarma has even said that it could be the only way to tackle poverty and illitarecy among the muslim minority in the state.
Congress and Swamajwadi Party in UP called it a political move. They accused Chief Miniser of the state, Jyogi Adityanath bringing in a divisive policy to target one community.
one-child policy is dangerous in the long run as proven in China, where the government is trying desperately to reverse the disastrous effects of the policy.
China has announced that it will allow couples to have up to three children, after census data showed a steep decline in birth rates. China scrapped its decades-old one-child policy in 2016, replacing it with a two-child limit which has failed to lead to a sustained upsurge in births.
In a study conducted before the announcement of the end of the one-child policy, projections from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs predicted that the number of Chinese citizens over the age of 65 will soar to 219 million in 2030 and grow to make up a quarter of China’s entire population by 2050. This means a significant portion of residents will age out of the labor force.
China is not alone in this dilemma. Low birth rates are also a product of personal choice, and the UN predicts we’ll see a considerably older world population by 2100.
BJP’s population control push and the Central Government’s submission before the Supreme Court in 2020 are very much contradictory . As a signatory to the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, India is unequivocally against coercion in family planning. Submission made by BJP lead centre in the Supreme court was also aligned with this.
Again in India experts expressed doubt on the way the state goverments desire to attain birth control. Research studies and previous data indicate that the new policy to control the population may not have the desired effect. Instead, it could lead to a host of unintended consequences – including a rise in female foeticide, unsafe abortions leading to the woman’s death or poor health, or women having lower agency over their own bodies.
