Backing the population control law proposed by BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and Assam, a minister in the Rajasthan Congress government said the time has come for India to start thinking about controlling its population.
Speaking to ANI, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma said, “The growing population is a problem. The country has to think about controlling it so that the coming generation can live a better life. It is time for ‘Hum Do, Hamare Ek’ (both of us and a child).”
However, he clarified that his views were purely personal and had nothing to do with the Rajasthan government’s stand on the proposed bill.
He also said that he spoke in the context of Rajasthan, which has a population control law for more than two decades, which was implemented in 1995 by the Bhairon Singh Shekhawat-led BJP government.
According to reports, the Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission has started the ground work for a draft law that will seek to limit the benefits of state government schemes to only those with two or less children. The purpose of the law is to encourage people to help with population control in the most populous state in the country.
A similar policy is being discussed in Assam as well. Earlier, Assam had proposed a two-child policy in state-run welfare schemes through a law that would make people with only two children eligible for government jobs and welfare schemes. The Assam chief minister said this could be the only way to tackle poverty and illiteracy among the state’s Muslim minorities.
The bill passed by UP has come under scrutiny by several political parties who have called it a political move in UP with Congress and Samajwadi Party accusing Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of bringing divisive policy to target a community is.
However, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, speaking in Rampur on Sunday, defended the policy and said population control is the need of the hour.
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