Union Minister Prahlad Patel said that soon a law will be brought for population control. Patel said this in Raipur on Tuesday. This is not the first time that discussions are going on in the country regarding the population control law. Earlier in July last year, the State Law Commission of Uttar Pradesh released the draft population control law. Objections and suggestions were sought on this. On the other hand, the central government has said many times in the Lok Sabha that it does not intend to bring any law related to population control.
1. Is there a need to bring a population control law?
AR Nanda, executive director of the Population Foundation of India, says that in most states of the country, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has been reduced to 2.1 or less. Which according to the UN is the standard of replacement population for any population. That is, the rate of population growth of our country is going in the right direction. There are few states like Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, where TFR is more than 2.1. But, TFR is decreasing rapidly in these states also. In the coming three to four years, TFR will reach 2.1 here too.
2. If a law is made, what will be its effect?
Nanda says that China, where the first law like population control was implemented, suffered a lot because of it. In particular, there has been an increase in female feticide. Due to the damage caused by this law, China had to give exemption from one to two, now two to three children. Doing this in India also can increase cases like female feticide.
3. In some states of India, this law is applicable, what was its effect there?
Nanda explains that a state like Odisha in India where such a law has been in force for about 28 years. There, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have suffered. These people also got away from the election process of the Panchayat Raj system of the state. At the same time, in the states where this policy has been implemented, no report has ever been issued regarding its effect.
In 2006, former IAS officer Nirmala Buch did a study on five states implementing this policy. It was told in this study that selective and unsafe abortions have increased in these states after the two-child rule. In some cases, men divorced their wives to contest local body elections. Along with this, in some cases, children were given in adoption to avoid disqualification.
4. What has been the stand of the Central Government till now?
In the Lok Sabha, the central government has refused to bring any law related to population control many times. A similar reply was given by Bharti Praveen Pawar, Minister of State for Health in December 2021. In response to a question, the Health Ministry had said that any coercion or decree for a certain number of children has a bad effect. This leads to abortion, abandonment of daughters, and even female feticide, giving priority to sons.
5. What is said in the constitution on such a law?
The Constitution allows both the Center and the States to make laws for population control and family planning. However, there is no national policy relating to population control in the country. From time to time there have been petitions for making a national policy for population control. In a 1981 case, the Supreme Court upheld the order of Air India had fired its flight attendant on the third pregnancy.
6. Have the laws made by the states also been challenged in the court?
For the first time in 2003, the matter related to the population policy of a state reached the Supreme Court. When a petition was filed against the Haryana Government\'s Panchayati Raj Act, 1994. The petitioner had called this act against the right to equality. However, the Supreme Court upheld the state law. However, later the Haryana government itself withdrew the two-child act.
In March 2018, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court. In this, an appeal was made to the court to direct the Center to make a two-child policy for population control. This was rejected by the Supreme Court and the petitioner was asked to approach the government.
In 2019, BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay also filed a petition related to this. In this, he appealed to the court to direct the Election Commission that political parties cannot field candidates who have more than two children. The court dismissed this petition. However, in January 2020, the Supreme Court accepted a second petition related to Upadhyay\'s two-child policy. The court, while hearing the petition, sought a response from the Center on population control.
7. What was the answer given by the Center in the Supreme Court?
In its reply to the court, the Center said that it is against fixing the number of children. This affidavit was given by the central government in December 2020. In this, the government had said that India\'s Family Welfare Program gives people the freedom to decide the size of the family. In this, Sarkar said that India is one of the countries that signed the Program of Action in the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994. Which is against any kind of coercion for family planning.
8. What is the status of the population in the country now?
The figures of the fifth National Family Health Survey (National Family Health Survey or NFHS-5) conducted by the government have come recently. According to this, there are only five states including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where the total fertility rate is more than 2.1. Bihar has the highest fertility rate of 2.98, followed by Meghalaya with a TFR of 2.91. Uttar Pradesh is at number three where TFR is 2.35. Jharkhand has a TFR of 2.26 and Manipur has a TFR of 2.17. The total fertility rate (ie TFR) in the country has gone up to 2. To maintain the current population of a country, the rate of a replacement should be 2.1. That is, the rate of growth of the population has become less than its replacement level.
9. Is the population of the country going to decrease in the coming days?
AR Nanda says that the fertility rate is decreasing in all the states. But, our population size is quite large. Just like applying brakes on a moving vehicle does not stop it immediately, it takes some time to stop. Similarly, the momentum of the population will not stop immediately. Our population will increase over the next 20-30 years. Right now it is around 140 crores. In the next 20-30 years, when it will become 160 or 170 crores. At that time our growth rate will be zero. After that, it will come in minus. That is, after that the population will start decreasing.
10. What is the talk about the Muslim population growing rapidly?
There have been five NFHS surveys in the last three decades. From the first survey in 1992-93 to the fifth survey, the decline in fertility among Muslims has been the most. The TFR among Muslim women in 1992-93 was 4.41. Which has come down to 2.36 in the new survey. However, right now it is the highest among all religions. At the same time, TFR has come down from 3.30 to 1.94 in Hindu women during this period.
The fertility rate of the Sikh and Jain communities has increased as compared to last time. The fertility rate in the Sikh community was 1.58 in 2015-16, which has now increased to 1.60. At the same time, the fertility rate in the Jain community has increased from 1.20 to 1.60.
AR Nanda says that I have always believed that the population does not increase or decrease based on religion. Most of the fertility rates are in the less educated and illiterate population. The fertility rate in the poor and very poor Hindu populations and the fertility rate in the poor Muslim population has remained almost the same. it\'s always been like this
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