Two-child policy: Step in the Right Direction

Swakkhyar Deka

(The author can be reached at swakkhyar@gmail.com)

The Government of Assam has taken the decision in its last Cabinet meeting that those with more than two children would not be considered for government jobs from January 1, 2021. In view of the increasing population and its effect on available resources, the State government recognises that rapid population growth can severely hamper progress in reaching the primary goals to achieve a high quality of life for the people.

The decision must be viewed in light of the National Population Policy which aims to stabilise India's population by 2045. Currently, India has a population of 1.3 billion people, the second-most populous country in the world.

Population and Women Empowerment Policy of Assam, a resolution on which was passed in 2017 in the Assam Legislative Assembly, lists two key norms for government employment linked to population growth: — (i) only candidates with two children will be eligible for government jobs; and (ii) government servants shall strictly follow norms of two children to serve as role models for society.

Not only that, but the policy also covers the electoral process. It states that the government may legislate on legal provisions to bar those with more than two children from participating in panchayat and municipal body elections.

Last year, the Assembly had passed the Assam Panchayat (Amendment) Act, 2018, according to which those contesting panchayat polls cannot have more than two children. The other states with similar norms for local body polls include Uttarakhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

The Population and Women Empowerment Policy of Assam state: "The population of Assam increased to 3.12 crore (2.66 crores in the 2001 Census). Although there is a decline in the decadal growth of population, the rate of increase of 17.07 is at an unsustainable level. The State's population density is 398 as per the 2011 census as against 340 in 2001. In 2013, Assam recorded a Total Fertility Rate of 2.3 (source: SRS) against a target for replacement level fertility rate of 2.1; its crude birth rate is approximately 21.3 (Annual Health Survey 2011-12)."

As per Census 2011, Assam's total population was 3,12,05,576 which showed a decadal growth rate of 17.07 percent from the 2001 census. The district of Dhubri registered the highest growth rate of 24.44 percent, followed by Morigaon 23.34 percent, Goalpara 22.64 percent, Nagaon 22 percent and Barpeta 21.43 percent. The three Barak Valley districts of Karimganj, Hailakandi, and Cachar showed population growth of 21.9 percent, 21.45 percent, and 20.19 percent in the same period. Dhubri's population of 1 crore 56 lakh grew to 1 crore 94 lakh in 10 years.

According to the Annual Health Survey 2012-13, Assam's Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is 2.4, which is not far from the national TFR. The State's infant mortality rate (IMR) is also considerably high with 54 as per the Sample Registration Survey (SRS) 2013. In the under-5 child mortality rate also, Assam tops the chart amongst the States of India with 73 per 1,000 live births against the national average of 49 (SRS 2013).

Lots of hullaballoo has been created following the Cabinet decision of the Assam government. Lok Sabha MP and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal have opposed the decision by asserting that Muslims would not be bound by law and they would continue to produce children.

This was countered by the retired surgeon of Gauhati Medical College and Padma Shri awardee Dr. Ilias Ali who said that Ajmal must not mislead the Muslim population of the State as large families hamper the chances of growth of minority community and their quality of life. Muslim families have as much right to live a happy and healthy life with a lesser number of children as any other community, he opined.

Dr. Ali has been working tirelessly to popularise family planning in the char areas of the State which are inhabited primarily by Bengali-speaking Muslims where family planning methods like No-Scalpel Vasectomy (NSV) and the use of contraceptive pills are viewed as un-Islamic. He quotes verses from the Quran and the Hadith to encourage people to go for male sterilisation NSV. Despite facing a lot of challenges, he has been successful in getting NSV performed on 55,000 persons mostly living in the remote char areas.

It is a fact that the districts where most of the chars are found, like Dhubri, Morigaon, etc, have high rates of population growth. The more than 2,000 chars or riverine sandbars in Assam are home to hundreds of thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims where lack of education has resulted in resistance to family planning methods. The increasing population density in minority-dominated districts has long been attributed to large scale infiltration from Bangladesh and the high reproduction rate of these poor and illiterate masses.

Lack of education and family planning, as well as the common practice of child marriage, has resulted in the char population growing at an alarming rate which the eroding land resources cannot support. Religious leaders and opinion-makers of the community, in most cases, forbid male members of the households to go for sterilization methods like NSV despite the government offering a monetary incentive for adopting them.

Womenfolk, in most cases, are not allowed to make decisions regarding family planning and hence, which explains the low acceptance level of contraceptive pills distributed by ASHA workers along with copper-T or sterilization.

In the education sector, as per the 2002-03 survey of Directorate of Char Areas Development, Govt of Assam, there were 1,852 lower primary schools, 574 middle schools, 218 high schools, eight higher secondary schools, and 18 colleges to cater to the educational needs of the char dwellers. This, for a population of 25 lakh, means less than one lower primary school for 1,000 people and worse in the case of higher education. Moreover, these areas have a very high dropout rate for the male child at the primary school level.

Land ownership in char areas is extremely skewed with 10 percent of the population owning about 80 percent of the land. Most are small and marginal farmers while 30 percent are landless. Feudalism is the outcome of this uneven distribution of land assets, while a low level of literacy is resulting in youths falling for religious fundamentalism and other anti-social activities.

Therefore in light of the above pointers, the Cabinet decision of Assam government's two-child policy for government job aspirants assumes significance. Going beyond mere politicking and appeasement of certain sections, leaders from all political and ideological affiliations must support this step of the State government.

Population control is the need of the hour and all sections of society cutting across religious or linguistic lines must join hands with the government to bring about holistic development through population stabilization.