{"id":118881,"date":"2021-07-15T20:19:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T14:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=118881"},"modified":"2021-07-15T20:19:48","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T14:49:48","slug":"sudden-interest-in-population-control-in-assam-and-up-points-to-political-bad-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/sudden-interest-in-population-control-in-assam-and-up-points-to-political-bad-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudden interest in \u2018population control\u2019 in Assam and UP points to political bad faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=GLN8P3OUP.1&amp;imageview=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hindu<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/sudden-interest-in-population-control-in-assam-and-up-points-to-political-bad-faith-7405007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Indian Express<\/a><\/b><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>: Population control measures have to be rational and focus on welfare-based approach<\/p>\n<h5><b>Synopsis:\u00a0<\/b><\/h5>\n<p>States\u00a0<strong>should tackle the socio-economic issues<\/strong>\u00a0confronting India\u2019s largely youthful demography\u00a0<strong>rather than seeking<\/strong> a stringent approach towards <strong>population control<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Introduction:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/family-mis-planning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new draft Bill prepared by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Law Commission<\/a> seeks to control the population by introducing a two-child policy.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, the <strong>Assam<\/strong> CM has also expressed concern over the \u201cpopulation explosion\u201d amongst the Muslim community in the state. He has further reiterated that <strong>stringent population control is the only way forward<\/strong> to bring about development for the community.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Challenges with the population control policies:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Against Central government argument<\/strong>: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare argued in Supreme Court last year that \u201cinternational experience shows that <strong>any coercion to have a certain number of children is counter-productive and leads to demographic distortions<\/strong>\u201d.\n<ul>\n<li>The Government further confirmed that <strong>India was committed to its obligations under international law<\/strong>, including the principles contained in the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, 1994.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Against Court Judgements<\/strong>: Supreme Court in various cases upheld the <strong>right to reproductive freedom.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In <strong>Suchita Srivastava &amp; Anr vs Chandigarh Administration (2009) case<\/strong>, the Court found that a <strong>woman\u2019s freedom to make reproductive decisions is an integral facet of the right to personal liberty<\/strong> guaranteed by Article 21.<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India (2017) case, <\/strong>the court held that the Constitution sees a person\u2019s autonomy over her body as an extension of the right to privacy. This also includes reproductive rights. Further, the UP&#8217;s draft bill is in violation of the doctrine of proportionality mentioned in the Privacy judgment.<\/li>\n<li>In the <strong>Devika Biswas vs Union of India (2016) case<\/strong>, the Court pointed that sterilization camps have a disparate impact on minorities and other vulnerable groups. The draft UP law could lead to a proliferation of sterilisation camps.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the Javed &amp; Ors vs State of Haryana &amp; Ors (2003) case<\/strong>, the Court upheld a law that disqualified persons with more than two children from contesting in local body elections. But the UP&#8217;s proposed law is far more disproportionate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Population \u201cexplosion\u201d is a bogey<\/strong>: Many Indian states are moving towards achieving a total fertility rate (TFR) of 2.1 with voluntary population control measures. So, population explosion is not occurring in India.\n<ul>\n<li>For instance, <strong>In Assam<\/strong> where the government is talking about population explosion, the <strong>TFR<\/strong> has dropped from 2.2 in 2015 to<strong> 1.9 in 2020-21<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Population Foundation of India<\/strong> has rightly <strong>pointed out<\/strong> that a strict limit on the number of children, like the two-child norm, will unleash a <strong>rapid increase in divorce and sex-specific abortions.<\/strong> It would be highly detrimental to the future of the nation.\n<ul>\n<li>One needs to remember that the child sex ratio of India has already been in a steady decline, dropping from 945 in 1991 to 918 in 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Population control policies <strong>cannot be framed for one particular minority community<\/strong>. According to NFHS-4, in 22 states, the fertility rate of Muslims was lower than that of Hindus in Bihar. So, the government has to focus on better service delivery of modern contraceptive methods.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"content-box-green\">\n<p><strong>Read more:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/population-control-measures-in-india\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Population control measures in India \u2013 Explained, pointwise<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Terms to know:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/national-family-health-nfhs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Family Health Survey (NFHS)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/total-fertility-rate-tfr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Total Fertility Rate (TFR)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/what-is-doctrine-of-proportionality\/\">The doctrine of proportionality<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/international-conference-on-population-and-development-1994\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">International Conference on Population and Development, 1994<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: The Hindu and The Indian Express Relevance: Population control measures have to be rational and focus on welfare-based approach Synopsis:\u00a0 States\u00a0should tackle the socio-economic issues\u00a0confronting India\u2019s largely youthful demography\u00a0rather than seeking a stringent approach towards population control. Introduction: A\u00a0new draft Bill prepared by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Law Commission seeks to control the population&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/sudden-interest-in-population-control-in-assam-and-up-points-to-political-bad-faith\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sudden interest in \u2018population control\u2019 in Assam and UP points to political bad faith<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[263,5342,264],"class_list":["post-118881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-1","tag-population","tag-society","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700791970,"cached_date":1703251527},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}