NEED FOR UTTAR PRADESH POPULATION CONTROL BILL,2021 - Karan Teotia

INTRODUCTION

“The hungry world cannot be fed until and unless the growth of its resources and the growth of its population come into balance.“[1]

Uttar Pradesh’s population Control Bill

According to the, 2011 census the population of Uttar Pradesh is near about 20 crores which made it the most populous state in India. According to the statistics available, at the time of Independence, the population of Uttar Pradesh was slightly above Six crores, which has increased at an incredible pace. The marginal increment is also very huge with an 11.5% of Marginal Rate in 1951 to the rate of 25.6% till 1991, population growth has been very significant in this state. Though the report of 2001 is quite soothing according to which the Marginal Rate has remained stagnant, and in the 2011 Census it has decreased to 20 per cent only. And it is expected that as and when the 2021 census is done, the marginal rate would come down to 15%. Though the results are very soothing we must not forget that the total population of 23 crores constitutes more than 16.5 % of our nation’s total population.[2]

The growth of the population is Geometric, and the growth of resources is arithmetic. On a simple note, the growth of the population is Multiplicative and resources increase slowly and gradually. This creates an imbalance and thus leads to economic, social and political problems.

Social

More population, more are the chances that family resources would be usurped in feeding more and more mouth, though it is not assured the food will be healthy and adequate. In order to provide civilized living, it consists of poor families, “all amenities needed for civilised living will have to be compromised: housing, healthcare, education would be the serious casualty.”

Economic

Due to the rise in the population, it at times becomes unable to provide with two times meal. This is when they fall within the vicious circle of poverty. And this is such a large portion of society that even government spending could also not change things as the population is too high. Because of this, the government has to import things from abroad and provide them with subsidies for the same. It also decreases the Per capita income which is calculated by dividing the total earnings by the total populations, it clearly adds on the dead weight.

Political

The rise in such a population continues to be a poverty-stricken group, which is a kind of burden on the government and on the nation as a whole. They are not contributing much but are capable of bringing political changes.[3]

Reasons for the increase in Population

The perverted ego of bearing a male child - This is one of the major reasons for the increase in the population the lower section or the underprivileged section of the society has limited knowledge and it is due to lack of education, they in order to satisfy they're and carrying on with the tradition which was earlier followed in their family, to have a male child who would carry on their progeny.

Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 2003, commonly called the PC-PNDT Act, was passed in the year 2003, criminalizing sex determination. Which created an imbalance in the society as in the late 20th century it was seen there was a drastic change in the Girl to boy ratio, which actually declined the number of females in the society, feeling the need for removing banning sex determination this act was passed, but we know that the solution does not come alone it comes with Challenges, and the new challenge increased in the population, now in order to satisfy the ego more and more children were produced, until they had a male child, this increased the female fertility rate, thereby increasing the population”.

Considering the increase in the population leads to more hands to work- Our economy, though changed but still to a great extent is agriculture-based, people here are mainly daily waged earner, and are dependent on daily wages, which are too low considering which these people tend to add more member to their family, it leads to increase in the number of a nuclear family but also adds more hands to work, irrespective of the gender. In order to tackle, this situation the government announced the minimum wages scheme for the daily wage earner, but again this purpose was defeated and hardly these guidelines are adhered to by anyone, and the objective of the government remained unfulfilled.

Lack of education- Sex or being in physical contact is taboo. And rustic people are not comfortable talking about it. People are not aware of the use of contraceptives and thus it increases the risk of enlarging families. “Hum do Hamare do” was a programme that was launched by the Indira Gandhi government to prevent and mitigate the enlargement of the population. Sterilization was performed on the poor people and to very surprise, 6.2 million people were sterilized. There is a misgiving on sterilization that people lose potency, both among males and females.

Political Motivation to create an imbalance in the society- There are several political leaders/Spiritual leaders who motivate the people to increase the population by fearing them of losing their identity to people of other religions who are in majority. This creates discord amongst them.[4]

As we discussed earlier that, resources are limited and the demands are unlimited leads to which leads to Social, Political and Economic imbalance within the society.

Case Laws

Javed Vs State of Haryana[5]

This case relates to, the grounds for disqualification from contesting the Panchayati Raj elections, as a result of which section 175(1)Q and 177(1) was contended to be violative of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which states, “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.” “Equality before the law means that all must be treated equally and equal protection of law means that people must be treated such that equality must be amongst the equal.” The Impugned sections of the Haryana Panchayati Act talks about that a person who has more than two children shall be debarred from Contesting from the election, after the commencement of the act and A window of a year, as a relaxation, is given to people who have conceived their child during the adoption of the act, any child born, beyond Second, during the above said period would be considered to be as legitimate and the impugned section would not be applicable on the same. If, beyond the period of one year, a child is born after a year then in such a case the section of the Act would be applicable on them and thus, they would be debarred from Contesting election and even would have to leave the position, as specified in the act.

Issues-

· Whether the Impugned section Violates Article 14 or not.

Article 14 debars racial discrimination according to which there cannot be any division on the basis of class, but on the basis of reasonable classification division can be done.

In order to prove the reasonable test, the Permissible test has to be proved which states -:

1. Classes made on the basis of Intelligible Differentia

2. The Intelligible Differentia is directly related to the Subject sought to be achieved

So, it was held by the Hon’ble court that the class differentiation made by the Act, was amongst the one who had less than two children and the one who had more than two children, it's clearly visible that it comprises two different classes and is found on intelligible differentia.

The Subject sought to be achieved is to control the population and is inconsistent with the centre’s family planning programme, and thus it can be stated that the impugned sections have passed the reasonability test and thus are not violative of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.

Basudev Sahoo vs Akhaya Kumar Pradhan And Ors.[6]

Facts- The petitioner was appointed as the sarpanch of the village and at that point of time had 2 children, after a year, he begot another child, which took the total count to three children which actually was prohibited within the meaning of the Orissa Grama Panchayat (Amendment) Act, 1964. But the child number two, named Anita, was adopted by their brother-in-law, and as a result of which the total who were parented by the petitioner was limited to two. As this was contended by the learned counsel as legally the number of children was two, in such a case he cannot be disqualified from the post which is held by him.

Held by the court- To contest an election is not a right that is enshrined within part III of the Indian Constitution. Rather it is a statutory right and the rights and obligation are conferred upon the individual by the statute itself. Thus, even though legally has two children but as he begot three children that too after the commencement of the Act and the wording of the impugned section clearly highlights that the third child must not be begotten after the expiry of one year. No provision with respect to adoption, explicitly, was a part of the Act but the wordings and the intent, which is to support the family planning programme, clarifies that the impugned section was put into force to stop the increasing population at the very Grassroot level, and the local governments head are considered to be role model in small villages and towns, so this set of qualification was to promote and give an unequivocal message to the crowd to control the ever-rising population. The Court clearly upheld the challenged section and allowed the disqualification of the Sarpanch on the above-stated grounds.

Salient features of the Uttar Pradesh Population Control Draft consist of the following –

- Benefits to the Government Official who have two children and voluntarily opt for Sterilization are as follows-:

1. “Two extra increments during years of service

2. Provision of Subsidy on purchase of plot or Housing site from Development Authority.

3. Provision for a loan, on building or purchasing a home, with a facility of nominal Interest.

4. Rebate on payment of water & electricity bill and on payment of house tax.

5. Health care services with insurance for a spouse for free

6. Maternity or paternity leave for both the parents for 12 months with full salary.

Benefits to Government employees who have one child

1. Four extra Increment

2. Girlchild to be given Scholarship for her Higher Studies

3. Preference in Government Jobs

4. Preference in admission to all Educational Institution

5. Free health care coverage till the age of twenty to the child.”[7]

Benefits to the People other than the government Servants

1. People living below the poverty line, having one child, who voluntary gets sterilization done would be given Rupees 1 lakh if the only born child girl and Rupees 80,000 if the only born Child is Boy. And several other benefits are being given to the above-stated classes like loans on the construction of Homes with the facility of the nominal rate of interest. Maternity and paternity leave for a period of 12 months etc.

CONCLUSION-

Population control is the need of the hour in the state of Uttar Pradesh as the fertility in this state is too High, 2.7. And the national threshold limit, with the aim to control the population, is 2.1. So, this step was the need of the hour for controlling the population by way of incentivizing discontinuing of the population Growth. The aim of the government is to control the population in two phases, 2026 and 2030. The resources are limited and the growth is stagnant but population growth has been very high, so the ultimate disbalance caused is, what we perceive as poverty. Education can also be another phenomenon but cannot be the sole way. Thus, I conclude that the ways adopted by the government are, by taking into consideration the demand of the different sections of the society, which are affected, directly by the increase in the population, comprehensive and covers almost all the aspects. The State of Uttar Pradesh could possibly be able to achieve the TFR (Total Fertility Rate) of 2.1.

[1] https://populationmatters.org/quotes, written by Lyndon B Jhonson [2] https://www.populationu.com/in/uttar-pradesh-population [3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12280490/ [4] https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/population/population-growth-causes-characteristics-and-explosion-of-population-growth/9968 [5] (2003) 8 SCC 369. [6] 97 (2004) CLT 148, 2004 I OLR 41 [7] https://www.india.com/uttar-pradesh/up-population-control-bill-no-govt-jobs-no-incentives-for-those-with-more-than-2-kids-key-points-4801546/