Population control sans coercion

CHENNAI: Last week, it was reported that India is set to surpass China as the world’s most populous country next year. The study compiled by the UN said the world’s population is expected to hit the staggering 8 bn mark by the middle of November this year.

Over 50% of the projected spike in global population by the year 2050 will be attributed to about eight nations, including India and a few countries in Africa. Tellingly, in June Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel had said India would shortly implement a population control law.

The announcement triggered a debate on how such a law can be enforced, its impact on citizens, and whether such laws will affect employment and other government benefits. It was after the intervention of Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya that the Population Control Bill 2019 was withdrawn in April 2022.Mandaviya had informed the Rajya Sabha that instead of using force, India had employed awareness and health campaigns successfully to achieve population control.

Mandaviya had referred to the impact of family planning programmes across a range of metrics. This also included a dip in the Total Fertility Rate (TFR), the average number of children borne by a woman, which is now 2.0 at the national level. Numbers from the National Family Health Survey and Census data show that the rate of population growth has been on a downward trajectory for a while now. The average annual exponential growth of population was 2.20 in 1971, which dropped to 2.14 in 1991, 1.97 in 2001, and 1.64 in 2011.The two-child policy has been brought up in the parliament about 35 times, but has been shot down on account of ignoring the rights of minorities and rights of divorced individuals.

A contravention arising from such a law would be involving Article 22 of the 1969 Declaration on Social Progress and Development, adopted by the UN General Assembly. This article ensures couples have a right to choose the number of children they will have. Rights enshrined in India’s Constitution, including Article 16 (equal opportunity viz public employment) and as well as Article 21 (Protection of life and liberty) could also be violated through such policies. India has a dark history of mass sterilisation that was carried out in the aftermath of the Emergency in 1976, when as many as 6.2 mn men were sterilised in the country, with several thousands of them being involuntary operations.

Right now, a few States have implemented laws that incentivise population control measures if adopted by citizens. In 2017, the Assam assembly gave the green signal to the Population and Women’s Empowerment Policy of Assam. As per the policy, only those with two children would be eligible for government employment while those already employed with the administration were asked to play ball. A year ago, the UP law commission proposed a ban on government subsidies for those with over two children. States like Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have one or the other kind of two-child policy that applies to those who are in line for elected government posts.

The time-tested policy of increasing literacy, especially among women, holds the key when it comes to family planning initiatives. By nature, family planning is a personal choice, which in turn has a larger impact on the community, followed by the nation. Taking a baton-centric approach like how China did with its now abolished one-child policy might only exacerbate scenarios of unsafe sex-selective abortions. India must ensure that awareness initiatives pertaining to birth control and maternal health are prioritised in all States.