The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposed its own member of Parliament Rakesh Sinha’s private member’s Bill that had asked that a “two-child law” be passed that had “penal provisions for violations”. However, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday shot it down and told the Rajya Sabha that instead of using “force (jabran)”, the government had “successfully used awareness and health campaigns to achieve population control” reported the Indian Express.
Rakesh Sinha had introduced the ‘Population Regulation Bill’ in the Rajya Sabha in July 2019 and had to withdraw it on Friday. The intent of such a law has been seen in Bharatiya Janata Party governed states in the past. In july 2021, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, had said that the implementation of the “two-child” policy will be toughened. The Assam Cabinet had approved the “two-child” norm as mandatory for getting a government job or continuing in one, in 2019. In 2017, the Assam Assembly had already passed a Population and Women Empowerment Policy according to which people with more than two children are barred from contesting local body elections. These moves have been seen as an attempt to restrict the number of Muslims in the state administration given their traditionally large families.
Other BJP states had voiced similar intentions, Lakshadweep administrator Praful Patel had tried to implement similar measures to disqualify candidates with more than two children from contesting local body elections. And in his August 2019, speech Prime Minister Naredns Modi said small families were “an act of patriotism” and asked state governments to launch policies to deal with this issue. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath had supported the idea instantly.
सरकार चाहती है कि सबको संसाधन मिलें, सबके जीवन की गुणवत्ता और बेहतर हो, लेकिन जनसंख्या विस्फोट समाज और देश के सामने एक विकराल चुनौती बन गया है।
हर एक को अच्छी स्वास्थ्य सेवाएं,बेहतर शिक्षा,सड़क,पेयजल और अन्य मूलभूत सुविधाएं मिलना चाहिए और यह तभी सम्भव है जब जनसंख्या नियंत्रित हो। pic.twitter.com/wzSIu2nldF— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) August 15, 2019
Now the union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said “family planning and healthcare policies are working well in the country without making them compulsory.” According to Mandaviya, there were “extensive public awareness campaigns on family planning” and the government was working to provide affordable healthcare .
He told the RS that “the total fertility rate has come down to around 2%. . . It tells us that the family planning mission is moving towards success.” According to a report in Times of India, the Opposition raised the point that “states that have successfully implemented family planning programmes must not be penalised and any law to control population should be through democratic means, not coercion”. According to Jairam Ramesh (Congress) and Tiruchi Siva (DMK) “states must not be made to lose out on central allocations which are based on population numbers.”
BJP run states want population control laws
However, in BJP ruled Karnataka party member and MLC Bharathi Shetty has now raised the issue and said a “UP like population control bill” should be brought in her home state too.
#BJP MLC Bharathi Shetty has raised the issue of population control. She says UP like population control bill should be brought in #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/Lv7VDccVGb
— Imran Khan (@KeypadGuerilla) March 30, 2022
In 2021, Uttar Pradesh Law Commission had submitted to chief minister Adityanath a controversial draft population control bill that proposed to “bar people with more than two children from local elections, government jobs, increments etc.” the draft was 232-pages long and the bill titled: Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021. According to a report in Hindustan Times, Justice (retired) AN Mittal, chairman of the commission, had written to the UP CM, saying “Rising population is a cause of concern for every nationalist…” The report also quoted Justice Mittal, a former judge of the Allahabad high court, who said “The state law commission has submitted the draft bill on population control to the chief minister, recommending a specific law for checking population growth.”
In July 2021 Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) sent comments/suggestions to the Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission over the proposed Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021. The CJP stated data that proved it was better to “”invest in better resources, higher literacy for women, empowerment and education of women to help control the population.”
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