Promote education among girls and awareness about family planning
The announcement of the new population policy - Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021 — by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the eve of World Population Day in July has opened a Pandora’s box and provided fresh ammunition to the opposition in the backdrop of the state legislative elections scheduled early next year. Some of the birth control measures in the Bill are coercive in nature. While recommending a two-child policy per couple, the state offers both incentives and disincentives. Government servants following the two-child norm would get two additional increments during their service apart from maternity or paternity leave for 12 months with full salary and a three per cent increase in the employment contribution fund. Those who fail to follow the norms would be debarred from contesting local bodies polls, would not be eligible to apply for government jobs, would be deprived of promotion, if in service, and would not get the benefits of subsidies.
This move should have been welcomed, especially when since 1990s 12 other states have experimented with some form of a two-child policy. However, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have since revoked the norms. These states also had strong disincentives. So, why are the opposition parties making so much noise? The main reason is the timing of this announcement just before the elections and the apprehension that the Muslim community is being targeted. The announcement has, once again, brought to the fore some pertinent questions about India’s population growth and its policies. First, is population explosion such a major issue? Second, is there a need to adopt coercive methods as proposed in the UP bill? Third, would the adoption of the suggested measures be an effective step in solving the problem? Fourth, is the Muslim population growing so rapidly that it willlead to overtaking of Hindus in numbers over a period of time? And lastly, what is the best option available to control the population? We need to provide convincing answers to these relevant questions. Undoubtedly, increase in population is a serious issue. India’s population will surpass China’s by 2027. About the need for coercive methods, Union Minister of State for Health and family Welfare, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, has categorically denied that there is a push to impose a two-child norm. Thirdly, a two-child norm, it has been seen, has resulted in rise of sex-selective and unsafe abortions. Moreover, to contest local body elections, some men went to the extent of divorcing their wives or gave up their children for adoption to avoid disqualification. Fourthly, according to the 2011 census, the highest number of Muslims in the country - over 38 million — live in Uttar Pradesh. However, the community still accounts for less than 20 per cent of the state’s population. As per official data, between 2001 and 2011, Hindus grew at two percent annually while Muslims grew at 2.5 per cent. A finding of the Population Foundation of India reveals that while the Hindu growth rate declined by 5.6 percentage points in the last two decades, for Muslims, the decline was even faster, at 6.1 percentage points during the same period. So, what is the best course available to solve the problem of population explosion? In India, Total Fertility Rate for women with more than 12 years of education is 1.7 compared to 3.1 for the illiterate. So, the way out is promoting education among girls, awareness about family planning, easier access to contraception, incentivizing late marriages and child births and promoting participation of women in workforce.
(The writer is a senior journalist and Chairman, Panwar Group of Institutions, Solan, Himachal Pradesh. The views expressed are personal.)