Extending support for the population control law proposed by BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and Assam, a minister in the Rajasthan Congress government said it is time that India starts thinking about controlling its population.
Talking to ANI, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma said “Growing population is a problem. The country has to think about controlling it so that future generations can have a better life. It is time for ‘Hum Doh, Hamare Ek’ (we both and one child),”.
However, he clarified that his views were entirely personal and had nothing to do with the Rajasthan govt’s stance on the proposed bill.
He also added that he had spoken in the context of Rajasthan, which has had a population control law for over two decades, enforced by the Bhairon Singh Shekhawat-led BJP government in 1995.
As per reports, the Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission has begun the groundwork for a draft law that will seek to limit the benefits of state government schemes only to those with two children or fewer. The law is aimed at incentivizing people to help in population control in the most populous state in the country.
In Assam, a similar policy is being discussed. Earlier Assam had proposed a two-child policy in state-run welfare schemes through a law that would make only those with up to two children eligible for government jobs and welfare schemes. Assam’s Chief Minister said it could be the only way to tackle poverty and illiteracy among the state’s Muslim minority.
The bill passed by UP has come under scrutiny by many political parties who have called it a political move with the Congress and Samajwadi Party in UP accusing Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ohe populatf bringing in a divisive policy to target one community.
However, Union minister for minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, while speaking in Rampur on Sunday defended the policy and said population control is the need of the hour.
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