On the occasion of the World Population Day, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday announced the Uttar Pradesh’s Population Policy 2021-30, expressing the government's intention to enact a new law to make the various strategies being adopted to control the population more effective.
“We need to control the fertility rate… People of every caste, religion, community will have to focus attention on controlling the increasing population. I am very happy that this new policy has been announced on the occasion of World Population Day," the chief minister said during the function.
In the new population policy, the government has set a target to reduce the birth rate.
The chief minister said that concerns were raised from time to time that the increasing population could be a hindrance in the development. He said this issue was discussed many times over the last four decades but nothing happened.
“More efforts are needed for population control. The role of awareness in this matter is very important," he said, adding that population policy was concerned with every citizen as increasing population was the reason for poverty.
The chief minister said that there should also be a gap between two children. “If there is not a good gap between two children then their nutrition will be affected. Poverty and a growing population are closely related to each other,” he said.
Yogi Adityanath said population policy was not only concerned with population stabilisation but also with bringing the path of happiness and prosperity in the life of every citizen to his doorstep.
He said that while making efforts for population stabilisation, it had to be kept in mind that it did not affect the demographic balance of the country.
To make the population policy effective, he emphasised on coordination among various departments along with spreading awareness among different sections of society.
The UP Law Commission has also prepared a population control bill, which promises perks and incentives to government employees and the general public who follow population control measures. It has released the final draft of the 'UP Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill, 2021' and invited suggestions by July 19.
People having more than two children in Uttar Pradesh will be debarred from contesting local bodies polls, applying for government jobs or receiving any kind of subsidy, according to the draft bill.
UP’s Medical Education Minister Suresh Khanna said that in the proposed new law for population control, if more emphasis was placed on incentives rather than penal provisions, then it could prove to be more effective. State Medical and Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh said that Uttar Pradesh would move towards population stabilisation by the year 2052 if the new population policy of the state was implemented properly.
In the new policy, a target has been set to bring the birth rate to 2.1 per 1,000 population by the year 2026 and to 1.9 per 1,000 by the year 2030. Apart from better management of nutrition, education and health of adolescents in the age group of 11 to 19 years, comprehensive arrangements will also be made for the care of the elderly.
The new policy also includes a proposal to set up health clubs in schools for population stabilisation. Along with this, according to the spirit of the Digital Health Mission, there is a plan to conduct digital tracking of newborns, adolescents and elderly people in the state.