Events & Issues
New Delhi, 22 July
2021
UP Population Policy
INCENTIVES
& PENALTIES
By Dr S. Saraswathi
(Former
Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)
UP Chief Minister
Yogi Adityanath, launching the State’s Population Policy stated, “We should not
forget that increase in population contributes to poverty in society. Hence,
until all sections are made
comprehensively aware, there will be a delay in fulfilling various goals”. The
root of all major problems and prevailing inequality in society is believed to
be in the rising population size. The CM touched a sensitive and controversial
issue when elections are due in six months.
UP Population Bill (also
referred to as Population Policy) aims at enforcing two-child norm and encouraging one-child family not so far tried
in any other State in India. China’s “one-child policy” with strict penal action for
violations was in force between 1980 and 2016 for 36 years to arrest population growth, and was replaced
by two-child policy which is now being changed
to three-child policy to correct the demographic distortion of ageing
population and dwindling working age-group.
Under the UP
Population (Control, Stabilisation, and Welfare) Bill 2021, by adopting
two-child norm, a couple will become eligible for a number of benefits
including two special increments during their service, subsidy for purchase of
a house, maternity or paternity leave with full salary and allowances for up to one year, and free
healthcare and insurance coverage for the spouse, rebate on charges for electricity, water,
etc., 3% increase in employer’s contribution to pension fund and such benefits.
Additional incentives
will be extended to couples having one child only like four additional
increments in salary, free healthcare facilities and insurance coverage for the
single child till the child turns 20 years of age, preference in admission in educational
institutions and free education up to graduation.
The Bill contains
certain penal provisions also for violations. A person who will have more
than two children after the law comes
into effect would be disqualified from applying to any government job, debarred
from contesting elections to local bodies and would be denied the benefits of
government welfare schemes. No ration
card would have more than four units with not more than two children. Existing government
employees violating the law would be denied promotions.
Many States – Andhra Pradesh,
Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh,
Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttarakhand -- have
adopted two-child policy in some form. Some States disallow them from
contesting local elections. Haryana Panchayat Act which restrained people having
more than two children from contesting
panchayat elections was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Assam Chief Minister had a discussion a few days
back about the real threat posed by population explosion to economic
development and decided to set up eight sub-groups to work for stabilisation of population by promoting two-child
norm by revising eligibility criteria for various welfare schemes. The State with
migrant Muslims and indigenous Muslims having different ideas on population
management has to reach a consensus in the matter. Soon after taking oath as
CM, he advised immigrant Muslims to adopt “decent” family planning measures. According
to NFHS data, Assam’s fertility rate is 1.9 which is below the replacement rate. Immigrant Muslims have also recorded sharp
decline in birth.
But, the country has
not adopted a national policy on family size and sticks to the Action Programme
adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development 1994, which rules out any coercion or incentives
and disincentives in implementing family planning programme. Assam and Gujarat have now
announced a legislation on 2-child policy which
provides a penalty for having third child. Rajasthan Health Minister has
come out in support of UP bill though his party, Congress, views it as an anti-minority
gesture. Karnataka is attracted by the
proposed UP law.
Pre-election season
is the ripe time for announcement of policies and promises that concern the
entire population going to the
polls. Uttar Pradesh, where Assembly
election is due in about six months, is witnessing speeches and actions that
will rouse everybody to realise that political masters have the power and
authority to decide on matters which they have been believing to be in their hands.
Population policy is
a matter of immense significance for development and welfare of people. Very
few people are aware they can determine the size of their family by their own
individual decision and the size of the population
of a State or nation by collective decision on individual family size. This has
necessitated direct government intervention and has led to adoption of state policies and enactment of laws. Incentives, disincentives,
preferences, denials, rewards and
penalties are instruments of enforcing population policy prescriptions
of governments. Advanced nations have
achieved stable population not through compulsion of any law, but with the force of development. But they now face
the problem of ageing population.
UP CM, while launching
the Draft Population Policy 2021-30 coinciding with the World Population Day, stated
that the sole aim of the policy was to align the State’s reproductive rate to
its development goals and that it was in line with the Sustainable Development
Goals to be reached by 2030. The aim is said to be to ensure that resources
reach everyone. The larger objective is to bring prosperity to the lives of the
people and also reduce the infant
and maternal mortality rate along
with stabilising the population. He inaugurated Population Stability Fortnight Programme starting from 11 July to draw
people’s attention to the new Population
Policy.
Fertility rate in UP,
which was 3.8% a decade ago, is now 2.7% . In rural areas,
TFR is 3.0% against 2.1% in cities due to level of
development and education. The policy aims to bring down the reproductive rate to 2.1% by 2026 and 1.7%
by 2030. Yogi Adityanath emphasised the need for “adequate gap” between two
children which is necessary for maternal and infant/child health. UP has a population exceeding 2 crore.
It is the most populous State in India and the
density of population is also high – 828 per sq.km while national
average is 382 per sq.km.
VHP is quick to reject
the one-child idea as a potential threat to Hindu community whose number will
decline while Muslims will lag behind in adopting the policy. In Assam and
Kerala, the TFR is below the replacement ratio of 2.1, but separately it is
much higher for Muslims at 3.16 in Assam
and 2.33 in Kerala. If the Bill is passed, it can alter Hindu-Muslim ratio in
the state population in course of time.
VHP’s Acting
President has pointed out that the law will increase dependency ratio as
contracting population will upset working age population-dependent adults
ratio.
TFR has been
declining in the country and in the UP also. The decline is caused by
economic growth, migration, education of
girls, decline in infant mortality rate and not by official policy. Union Government also informed the Supreme Court in response to a PIL that
it is against any kind of coercion to control population that would be
counter-productive and lead to
demographic distortion. ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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