Table of Contents
WHAT PM MODI SAID
“If you to do proper family planning and you will naturally see that a smaller family can be happier and more content. Your family will be away from diseases, will have more resources,” said the Prime Minister, adding, “Twenty-first century India needs to understand that development and prosperity begin only when individuals are healthy and resourceful. There are so many illnesses spread that our efforts cannot just be at the government level. We need to go public with our efforts.
THE BEGINNING – IN ASSAM
- The Assam Cabinet recently decided that no government jobs will be given to persons having more than two children after January 1, 2021
- In September 2017, the Assam Assembly had passed the ‘Population and Women Empowerment Policy of Assam’ that specified that job candidates with two children only would be eligible for government employment and the existing government staff were to strictly follow the two children family norm.
- ASSAM
- Population – 3.10 crore
- Assam’s average family size is 5.5, which is above the national average.
TWO-CHILD POLICY.
- Multiple Indian states have adopted a limited twochild policy. The policies are implemented by prohibiting persons with more than two children from serving in government
- Some states have repealed policies; Chhattisgarh introduced a policy in 2001 and repealed it in 2005.
MADHYA PRADESH EXAMPLE
- Six months after services of two Additional District Judges (trainees) were terminated for violating the two-child norm, Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed that they be reinstated and granted all consequential benefits, except salary from the date of termination till the date of reinstatement. Practising advocates Ashraf Ali and Manoj Kumar had appeared in the direct recruitment examination and were appointed as ADJs at Jabalpur and Gwalior, respectively.
INTERNATIONAL EXAMPLES WE CAN LOOK AT
Iran
IRAN POPULATION CONTROL
- Iran authorities encouraged families in Iran not to have more than two children when conducting family planning in Iran from the early 1990s to late 2006.
IRANIAN EXAMPLE
- In May 1993, the Iranian government passed a national family planning law that effectively encouraged couples to have fewer children — by restricting maternity leave benefits after three children.
- It also called for the Ministries of Education, of Culture and Higher Education, and of Health and Medical Education to incorporate information on population, family planning, and mother and child health care in curriculum materials.
SINGAPORE EXAMPLE
WHAT OUR TARGET SHOULD BE
- While 2.1 is typically the rate cited in the media as the minimum level needed to achieve replacement fertility, the replacement fertility rate actually varies depending on the level of infant and child mortality in a given country.