Population explosion is the ‘root cause’ of many problems in the country but the Centre has not taken appropriate steps to enact a stringent law till date to curb the menace, a plea filed in the Supreme Court said.
In a rejoinder to the Centre’s response to a PIL, BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay said the Centre has unequivocally opposed forcing family planning on its people and any coercion to have a certain number of children as it is counter-productive and leads to demographic distortions.
Upadhyay has challenged a Delhi High Court order that dismissed a plea seeking certain steps, including the two-child norm, to control the country’s growing population. The plea stated that “Population Control and Family Planning” is part of List-III of Seventh Schedule (Entry 20A) in the Constitution and hence the Centre can make stringent rules-regulations to control population explosion but it has not taken appropriate steps to enact a stringent law till date.
“The facts constituting the cause of action accrued on December 10, 2020, when in a written reply, Health Ministry said that Centre is against forcing family planning and won’t take coercive action,” the plea filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey said.
Upadhyay submitted in his plea that population explosion is also the root cause of the pitiable condition of the country’s international ranking in various fields. “We are ranked 103rd in the Global Hunger Index, 43rd in Suicide Rate, 168th in Literacy Rate, 133rd in World Happiness Index, 125th in Gender Discrimination, among others,” the plea said.
Contending that population explosion is the basic cause of more than 50 per cent problems of the country, the plea said effective control measure is the need of the hour.
The Centre had earlier told the apex court that it is unequivocally against forcing family planning on its people and any coercion to have a certain number of children is counter-productive and leads to demographic distortions.
In an affidavit filed in the top court, the health ministry had told the apex court that the family welfare programme in the country is voluntary in nature, which enables couples to decide the size of their family and adopt family planning methods best suited to them, according to their choice and without any compulsion.
The ministry had said that ‘public health’ is a state subject and the state governments must lead the process of health sector reforms in a suitable and sustainable manner to protect the common people from health hazards. “Improvement in the health sector can be effectively led by the state government with effective monitoring and specific intervention to control and regulate the implementation process of the guidelines and schemes in a proper perspective,” it said.