The Vishwa Hindu Parishad in a letter dated July 12 has recommended that the Uttar Pradesh law commission omit the one-child policy from the proposed draft of the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021.
VHP suggests UP Law commission to delet one child norm from the draft population policy.. pic.twitter.com/YRcd9XsenS
— Vishva Hindu Parishad -VHP (@VHPDigital) July 12, 2021
This comes shortly after the commission called for suggestions and recommendations from the public on the draft by the Law Commission. The letter starts with welcoming the government’s decision to take the right step towards population control but has highlighted several drawbacks of the single child policy.
Details of the letter:
The letter started with a suggestion to reconsider the objective to bring the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) to 1.7 within a certain limit.
It is pertinent that the Total Fertility Rate is also defined as the replacement rate. As per reports, “If, on average, women give birth to 2.1 children and these children survive to the age of 15, any given woman will have replaced herself and her partner upon death.”
The VHP notes that the policy which aims at less than two children per woman would disbalance the stability and have negative social and economic consequences.
To further its point, the VHP in the letter cited an example of China where it elaborated on the contracting population and disruption in the ratio between working age and dependent population in case the one-child policy norm is adopted.
“It is said that in China, the one-child policy was never applied to more than half of the prospective parents. Within three decades, it had to be completely withdrawn,” the letter reads.
The third probable repercussion to the one-child policy emphasized the community disbalance it might cause. It gave an example of the growing disparity in Kerala and Assam where the TFR of Hindus declined below the replacement rate of 2.1. Whereas, the TFR of Muslims was 2.33 and 3.16 respectively, thus highlighting the contraction of one community and expansion of the other.
Ending the letter of recommendation, the VHP pointed out the relevant clause of the proposed bill which needed reconsideration and tailoring.
UP’s population control bill
The proposed draft of the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021 was presented to the public last week. The proposed bill, if implemented into law, will provide benefits to those who have only up to two children.
There are certain benefits promised to public servants with only two children and then there are more that are promised for those who have adopted the one-child norm. The proposed benefits for those with two children include “two additional increments during the entire service” and “rebate on charges for utilities such as water, electricity, water, house tax”. The bill also proposed “free health care facility and insurance coverage to spouse”.
However, the bill promised additional benefits to public servants who adopt the one-child policy.
Such benefits include free education till graduation, preference for the single-child in premier educational institutions such as IIM and AIIMS and government jobs.
