Assam two child norm | SabrangIndia

Opportunistic Ajmal: AIUDF chief trashes Assam’s two-child norm

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 04:19:07 +0000

He kicked up a controversy with his statement saying Muslims would continue producing children despite the rule

‘Perfume King’ BadruddinAjmal has jumped back into the limelight after making a controversial statement slamming the Assam government’s new criteria for providing employment to people only with two children. The law comes into effect from January 1, 2021.

Ajmal said that “Muslims will not listen to anyone”, adding that they will keep producing kids despite the law. “Whatever laws you make, they will have no impact on the Muslims,” he said in a message to the BJP government led by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

He added, “Islam doesn’t believe in the concept of having only two children. No one can stop people who are bound to come into this world. The government is not giving us (Muslims) jobs anyway. We even don’t expect jobs anymore.”

“I would say my people should bear as many children as they want and educate them so they can open businesses, companies and shops to create job opportunities and also provide jobs to their Hindus brothers and sisters so they can also be happy,” Ajmal said.

Hitting out at the RSS, he said that the Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwatfavours 10 kids. “First, they should decide what they want. They don’t follow what RSS said.”

Why his statements hold no weight
Though Ajmal’s backlash at the Assam government’s decision may seem like it is in support of the minorities, it actually isn’t. His regressive statements actually negate all positive progress been made to foster the Muslim community.

First, the population facts. The population growth rate of Muslims has been declining since 1971 – from 30.9% during 1961-71 to 24.6% during 2001-11. In 2015-16, the number of unplanned children per Muslim woman came down to 0.6, a 50 per cent reduction in 10 years.

Ajmalis a member of the Indian Parliament from DhubriLokSabha constituency. He established then the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF), now All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and consolidated its position in Indian politics especially in Assam. He is also the president of the Assam State JamiatUlema-e-Hind. At a recent meeting to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of MarkazulMaarif Education and Research Centre (MMERC) he said, “The distinctive feature of MMERC is signified in its inalienable association with the Islamic seminaries envisioned to create balanced, honest, dedicated and intelligent individuals capable of transparent representation of Islam in order to introduce the true characteristics of the faith to unaware non-Muslims simultaneously address the misconceptions and misinterpretations.”

So much about propagating education, but undoing every effort made towards educating people.

In 2018, during the grueling exercise of the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) that threatened the lives and livelihoods of minorities in India, Ajmal again sensed some opportunity for political gains. A group of leaders associated with the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), led by LokSabha MP BadruddinAjmal, had launched a legal battle in 2011, portraying themselves as the sole saviours of ‘Doubtful Voters’ or ‘D-voters’ in Assam. In spite of a positive response from the court, he withdrew the case, betraying Bangla-speaking Muslims and Hindus through false promises.
The AIUDF, one of the major political parties in Assam, claims to be a champion of the “cause of Muslims” in the state.

The same Ajmalappealed to intellectuals to come forward and ensure that the final NRC is accepted as a document to resolve the foreigners’ issue in Assam.

Another proof of why Ajmal speaks only for political gains when he does is this. While on the one hand he says that he opposes PM Modi and his policies and that he would send the PM out of the country, members of his JamiatUlema-e-Hind met Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence to discuss “very important issues concerning the country and community”.

In conversation with The Sentinel, many literate Muslims slammed Ajmal’s remarks saying they did more harm by spreading a wrong notion of the community.

Renowned surgeon DrIllias Ali, said Ajmal’s statement is very unfortunate and irresponsible. Dr Ali stated giving birth to many children has proved to be a bane for Muslim families and there has been a growing awareness about the concept of small family among the community.

Tasneem Ahmed, a college teacher, termed Ajmal’s statement as revelation of his poor knowledge and medieval mindset. “There are different reasons for Muslims not getting enough government jobs. Giving birth to more children has no co-relation with government jobs,” Ahmed said.

Assam minister Pijush Hazarika termed Ajmal’s remarks “provocative and insensitive”.

Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai tweeted:

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy lashed out at Ajmal too saying, “When he says “we have the right”, is he tracing it to the Constitution?” he asked.

Union minister for stateGiriraj Singh lashed out at the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief and asked “whether Islam is the factory to produce children in India in BadruddinAjmal’s view?”

State BJP leader Syed MominulAwal said, “Ajmal has been using the Muslims originated from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) as vote banks for his politics. He is now trying to enhance the vote bank by asking the Muslims to produce more children.”

He added, “Ajmal is engaged in politics of polarization by invoking religion on the two-child norm. Now that his party is losing ground Ajmal is resorting to expanding his political business through religious polarization. Government decided on two child norm to counter negative impact population explosion. But Ajmal directly gave a an angle of religion to the decision.”

In the wake of such regressive comments, the All Assam Minorities Students’ Union (AAMSU) without naming Ajmal, accused a ‘few’ politicians resorting to cheap politics over the Assam government’s two-child policy.

AAMSU advisor AzizurRahman said that every conscious citizen of the community must be aware of the importance of birth control and pledged support to the initiative of the government.

“Keeping in mind the socio-economic condition and the geographical features of Assam, controlling the burgeoning population is a matter which needs serious attention and action. Since the economic condition of many communities — particularly the minorities — is very sound, we support the two-child policy.
“But the government should pay attention to implementing the policy in a practical manner,” he said.

AAMSU, without resorting to communal politics, brought up questions regarding serious issues that Ajmal has very swiftly avoided till date.

The AAMSU demanded justice for people languishing in detention camps across the state after the NRC that left 19,00,00 citizens ‘stateless’. After reports of mysterious deaths and suicide portrayed the deplorable conditions of detention centers where detainees declared ‘foreigners’ or ‘d-voters’ are currently being held, AAMSU president RejaulKarimSarkar demanded the government to re-scrutinize the documents of those spending miserable days in the detention camps.

Ajmal claimed that according to the Sachar Committee report, below 2 percent Muslims get government jobs. The committee had found that the government sector employs 23.7% Muslims while the private sector about 6.5%.

In 2014, Ajmalhad praised Modi’sLokSabha win. Congress alleged that he was cosying up to BJP as it was set to rule Maharashtra, where Ajmal’s perfume business would require the state government’s help.

Now, will the real Ajmal please stand up?

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Assam: New criteria for government jobs singling out minorities?

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 04:18:53 +0000

Besides two-child norm, violation of Child Marriage Act will also make one ineligible to apply

The State Council of Ministers in Assam on October 21 took a collective decision that come January 1, 2021, no person having more than two children from a single or multiple partners as well as those violating the ‘Child Marriage Act, 2006’ will be ineligible to apply for government jobs, The Sentinel reported.

The Personnel Department has proposed an amendment in ‘The Assam Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1965’, and proposed a new notification titled ‘The Assam Services (Application of Small Family Norms in Direct Recruitment) Rules, 2019’.

The Assam government has set three conditions for participation in government jobs.

Candidates with only two children will be eligible.
Government servants shall strictly follow the norms of a ‘two children family’.
Persons – both, male and female – who violate the legal age of marriage will not be eligible for any employment of employment generation scheme of the government.

The government has however made the following exceptions to the proposed law.

If “an applicant has only one living child from an earlier delivery but more than one child are born out of subsequent delivery, the children so born shall be deemed to be one entity while counting the number of children.”
“A person having more than two living children before January 1, 2021 shall not be ineligible so long as the number of children he/she has before the mentioned date does not increase on after that date.”

Applicants for government jobs will have to submit a declaration stating that they fulfil the set criteria. If on subsequent verification, it is found that the information furnished by the applicant is fake, he/she shall be liable to be dismissed from service.

What set the ball rolling?
India has grappled with unprecedented population growth rates since the turn of the century, and in fact, was one of the first nations globally, to introduce a family planning programme as far back as in the 1^st Five Year Plan in 1951. Then during 1980s, “Hum Do Hamare Do” (We Two Ours Two) was popularised through mass campaigns.

However, the country opted to sign the International Conference on Population and Development Declaration in 1994 that prohibited countries from enforcing blanket limits on the number of children, an individual or family can have.

Assam is not the only state to come up with this policy.By 2017, there were at least 12 states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Odisha, Bihar, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh which had called for a two-child limit for government jobs. The policy has reportedly been revoked in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh.

This year in August, PM Modi made a push for population control saying that keeping small families is an act of patriotism. He had asked state governments to launch policies to deal with this issue. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath had too propounded the same idea.

Last year, Rakesh Sinha, a RajyaSabha member introduced a private members Bill in the RajyaSabha, seeking to enforce punitive action against those contravening the small family practice. Some state governments have announced disincentives for non-politicians violating the two-child policy including refusal of government rights for the third or higher children, denying healthcare for mothers and children, denying nutritional supplements for women pregnant with their third or higher child, jail and fines for fathers, a general decrease in social services for large families, and restrictions on government position appointment and promotion, reported Investopedia.

The world’s most populous country, as a part of its family planning policy, China too, had introduced the one-child policy in 1979. According to reports, the number of births in China fell around 630,000 in 2017. The country repealed its one-child policy in 2016 to improve the balanced development of population” – an apparent reference to the country’s female-to-male sex ratio – and to deal with an aging population.

The consequences and criticism of the two-child policy
Apart from the most common criticism that interfering with the number of children being born will restrict the number of educated, young people in the next generation, critics say, the government doesn’t need to interfere as the population growth will gradually slow down as people grow richer and more educated.
India could also face an issue with negative population growth, where the number of old people receiving social services is larger than the young tax base that is paying for the social services.In China, this problem is known as the 4-2-1 problem (four grandparents, two parents and one child). The 4-2-1 problem places a heavy burden on the child to support his parents and grandparents both directly and indirectly, and so China has made efforts to prevent this by allowing certain families to have additional children.

The policy is seen as discriminatory towards women. In a country with a high gender imbalance and a preference for male children over females, the implementation of a two-child policy may see a spike in female infanticide – through abortion or infanticide of female fetuses.

This policy could also see a spike in divorce rates and desertions, if a man with a large family wishes to run for office.

Indian women, by and large, are unaware of the two child policy and can be turned away from essential life-saving healthcare services owing to the norm.

This policy will also be restrictive for women with already more than two children and unaware of the norm, from running for political positions, thus leading to a lesser representation of women in the political arena.

This law has increasingly been viewed as anti-democratic because it seeks to prevent people from participating in local self-governance after they have been elected through people’s mandate. This law interferes with the reproductive rights of individuals because it prevents individuals from exercising their right to decide the number of children they choose to have. This law discriminates against young citizens in their reproductive prime, because it creates distinction based on number of children. For example, in Rajasthan the two-child norm was made applicable for births after 1995. This means that whole generations of young citizens who have or wish to have more than two children following the year 1995 are automatically discriminated. Older citizens who have had three or more children before the stipulated cut-off date are not affected. (The Hunger Project, 2013)

In the wake of recent happenings in the country, the two-child norm has been suspected to be a politically motivated move towards minority religions in the country.

Northern and central India have seen a surge in campaigns advocating a population control law. This is rooted in deep Islamophobia, reflecting an idea that Muslims are trying to ‘overtake’ Hindus. Right-wing fanatic individuals and organizations have all blamed the Muslim community for the population explosion in the country and have been staunchly propagating the enforcement of the two-child norm.

Some Hindus, including politicians from the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP, are concerned that the higher fertility rate among Muslims will alter India’s religious makeup. In 2015, BJP parliamentarian SakshiMaharaj called on every Hindu woman to produce “at least four children to protect the Hindu religion.”

Giriraj Singh, union minister of state and a BJP lawmaker, was quoted in local media as saying, “The growing population of the country, especially Muslims, is a threat to the social fabric, social harmony and development of the country.”

It is common knowledge that religion is not a deciding factor in childbearing decisions. For people who are below the poverty line and are not economically strong, the higher the number of children, the more the number of working hands and higher the chances of social security.

Muslims make up around one-thirds of Assam’s population and form a majority in nine districts in the state. According to the last population census in the country, around 32% of Assam’s population was found to be below the poverty line. Sex ratio at birth has reduced from 1033 in 2005-06 to 929 in 2015-16 in Assam. A policy like the two-child policy is likely to further skew the ratio unfavourably. Also, how is it fair to people who have been victims of child marriage but have struggled to achieve an education and wish to contribute to society?

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