Reacting to the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Act, 2021, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi pointed out that international experience shows that any coercion on the number of children is counterproductive.
According to news agency ANI, the AIMIM leader said in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the two-children norm was opposed by the Centre saying international experience shows that such a move would lead to demographic distortion. "If Modi government is not ready to accept it (two-child norm), how come Yogi govt is going against it," he asked.
"As per year 2000 population policy, TFR has reduced from 3.2 per cent to 2.2 per cent in 2018, without incentives. In December 2020, Centre in an affidavit mentioned that 'international experience shows that any coercion to have number of children is counter productive'," he said.
He observed that in the December 2020 affidavit, Modi government had said due to declining Total Fertility Rate (TFR) , there cannot be a two-child policy in the country, and added that "Yogi government, on the other hand, is opposing it."
"This proposal violates Article 21, will cause harm to the women as 93 per cent sterilization happens among women in the country. Women should be be given the right to decide," he said.
Earlier, opposing the population policy, Samajwadi Party MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq had asked where will India get manpower in case of a war if people are not allowed to procreate. "A child who has to be born, will be born. You can make a law, but when a child takes birth, who can stop it," he had asked.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had unveiled the population policy which states that people who would have more than two children in the state will be debarred from contesting local bodies polls, applying for government jobs or receiving any kind of subsidy.
