Population Control Bill in India
Population Control Bill in India: Actor-turned Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravi Kishan on July 22, 2022, said that he was going to introduce a private member’s Population Control Bill in the Lok Sabha. Reportedly, the BJP leader said that we can be Vishwa Guru only when the Population Control Bill is brought and is important to bring the population under control. The latest statement has again sparked a debate on Population Control Bill, whether the law will be implemented, what effect it will have on the citizens, and whether it will be linked to employment or other government benefits as well.
Let’s understand in detail what is Population Control Bill, what are its legal challenges and its constitutional roots.
We can be Vishwa Guru only when Population Control Bill is brought. Very imp to bring population under control. With the way in which it's rising, we're heading towards explosion.I request Oppn to let me introduce Bill & listen to why I want to do it. Discuss!: BJP MP Ravi Kishan pic.twitter.com/9jz32k9Vmk
While the United Nations report that India has more than 1.4 billion people which makes the country the world’s second-most populous country, the world population review predicts that India will overtake China as the world’s most populous country by the year 2030.
The Population Control Bill in India of 2019, which was withdrawn in 2022, proposed a two-child policy per couple and aimed to incentivize its adoption through educational benefits, better employment opportunities, free healthcare, tax cuts, and home loans.
Objective
The proposed Population Control Bill in India aims at disincentivizing couples from giving birth to more than two children. The bill states that couples with more than two children policy be made ineligible for government jobs and subsidies on various facilities and goods provided by the government.
However, the two-child policy in India has been tabled in Parliament nearly three dozen times but has failed to get a green signal from either of the Houses.
Article 22 of the 1969 Declaration on Social Progress and Development, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in a resolution, ensures that the couples have a right to choose freely and responsibly the number of children they will have.
The policies, such as the Population Control Bill, to control and regulate the number of children violate such constitutional rights as Article 16 (equal opportunity in matters of public employment) and Article 21 (protection of life and liberty).
Population Control Bill or Two Child Policy has been introduced in the Parliament of India 35 times since Independence. If enacted, the Population Control Bill must take into account the rights of divorced couples as well as the Islamic religion.
The Bills that were introduced earlier to introduce Two Child Policy lacked these features and were heavily criticized by the general public and parties in opposition.
The Assam Assembly in 2017 passed the ‘Population and Women’s Empowerment Policy of Assam’, which stated that candidates with two children would only be eligible for government employment, and existing government employees were directed to follow the two-child family norm.
In 2021, Assam Policy was amended to make the government jobs out of bounds for people with more than two children.
Similarly, in the year 2021, the Law Commission of Uttar Pradesh came up with a proposal where any person having more than two children will be barred from getting government subsidies. The draft bill is still under consideration.
The coercive population control measures such as the introduction of the Population Control Bill will further encourage sex-election and unsafe abortion because of the collective desire for a male child. Women will further seek abortion as an alternative, jeopardizing their health and increasing illegal practices.
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