After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) introduced the Population Control Bill, 2019 in Parliament, a heated debate unfolded in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. Congresswoman Amee Yajnik pointed out that she was unable to understand the rationale for introducing the bill and also claimed that it was in fact done with a “motive”.
Elaborating on the motive, she said, “You want certain sections of society to stop having more children. You’re trying to separate sections of society with a majority view.”
She received support from her party member, L Hanumanthaiah, who said, “Act on so many socio-economic factors of the country and see that we are a healthy society and a healthy Bharat.” He lamented the lack of education, basic infrastructure like toilets and water in rural schools and health facilities and added, “These lead to unwanted pregnancies and maternal deaths, and there have to fix it first.”
The party’s common view was that the bill fell short of its objective and was therefore “not necessary at all”.
Congress launched a sterilization program during the emergency
Interestingly, the party in Congress that opposes the population control bill was the one that launched a widespread program of compulsory sterilization to limit population growth during the emergency era. In September 1976, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s son, Sanjay Gandhi started the program, which mainly involved men having vasectomies.
Quotas were established which enthusiastic supporters and government officials worked hard to achieve. There were also allegations of coercion from reluctant applicants. In 1976-77, the program led to 8.3 million sterilizations, most of them forced, compared to 2.7 million the previous year.
What is the Population Control Bill 2019?
The Population Control Bill, 2019 proposes to introduce a two-child-per-couple policy and aims to encourage its adoption through educational benefits, free health care, better job opportunities , home loans and tax reductions. There have also been calls to penalize couples who violate the policy by barring them from running for office or applying for government jobs.
There was considerable parliamentary debate over the Population Control Bill. Take, for example, the two-child policy; it has been tabled in Parliament more than 35 times since independence but has failed to become law.