After Assam, UP gears up for two-child policy; Law commission drafting population bill

Following Assam, Uttar Pradesh is gearing up to make a law on population control. The state Law commission has begun drafting a version of a population control bill, report sources on Sunday. The law, if enacted, will withhold benefits for some UP govt schemes for those violating the two-children rule. The Law Commission will submit its report to the Yogi government in 2 months.

UP Law Commission drafting population law

On Saturday, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that his government will gradually incorporate a two-child policy for availing govt benefits. He said, "Be it loan waiver or other govt schemes, population norms will be taken into account. It won't be applicable to tea garden workers/SC-ST community. In the future, population norms will be taken into account as eligibility for govt benefits."

Last year, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi had proposed `Population Control Bill, 2020’ in the Upper house in the Budget session. The bill aims at enforcing a two-child policy by offering incentives and disincentives to couples, as per reports. The incentives include - a one-time amount to married couples below the poverty line (BPL) undergoing voluntary sterilisation/operation with single child, setting up a National Population Stabilisation Fund, affordable contraceptives.

On the other hand, decentives included barring couples from contesting elections in Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha, state legislature and panchayat elections and other elective bodies, if violating the two-child policy. Moreover, violaters will also be banned from getting promotions in government services or applying to group A jobs or recieve government subsidy (except those in the BPL category). In the previous draft of the bill, it had also demanded that government employees should give an undertaking that they will not procreate more than two children. It also suggested that the government must give preference to applicants with two or less than two living children.

Experts defy; cite risks to women

According to Family planning 2020, though India is projected to overtake China’s population in less than a decade, the organisation states that India is on course to achieve population stabilisation with a national Total Fertility Rate of 2.2, which is close to the replacement level fertility of 2.1. Referring to the sharp decline in India’s population growth rates over 10 years from 2001 to 2011 from 21.5% to 17.7%, the organisation states that 24 of the Indian states and union territories have already reached the replacement level TFR of 2.1 with the desired Fertility Rate at 1.8. The organisation also highlights that currently there is a high unmet need for family planning at 13% amid married women of 15-49 years as of 2015-16. This reportedly placed these women at grave risk of death or disability during pregnancy and childbirth due to lack of access to contraceptives.