Population control not by coercion

Population control not by coercion

The Assam government’s draft population policy is sound except for its penal measures to enforce a two-child norm. It states that those with more than two children would not be eligible for government jobs or public office.
This is coercive and discriminatory and runs counter to the national policy as well as the freedoms and rights guaranteed by the Constitution. This is all the more perverse because the rest of the policy focuses on the right things: health, awareness, women’s agency.
The draft policy aims to reduce the state’s population growth rate. It seeks to improve health outcomes through better access, reduce maternal and infant mortality, and, thus, bring down the total fertility rate, currently at 2.3 to the target replacement level rate of 2.1. Assam’s decadal growth rate has been declining and is at 17.7 per cent, on par with the nation’s.
Assam seeks to improve health outcomes through better access, reduce maternal and infant mortality Despite identifying the problem areas, the draft policy goes off the rails. Instead of working to create the conditions that would make the target replacement rate possible, it begins by proposing penalties.
While the national policy does not adopt a two-child-per-family norm, Assam’s proposed policy does so unequivocally. In doing this, the policy undermines all the other measures to improve health outcomes that would affect fertility rates, thereby addressing the population growth rate.
The draft does detail goals for reducing reproductive health-related morbidity, improving education options for girls, public awareness for reproductive health and population issues, ensuring gender equality, and improving care for elderly.
The Assam government should drop the two-child norm and, instead, concentrate on ensuring it meets the health and education outcomes it has set out. That would ensure it is on the path to meeting its population goal.