by Pritesh Raj 17 May 2021
INTRODUCTION
India’s population currently stands at a whopping 1.35 billion people, accounting for close to 17% of the world’s population, with every sixth individual being an Indian Citizen. Having increased from 361 Million in 1951 to 1210 Million in 2011, India has increased its population by more than three folds since Independence! This drastic growth of India’s population has resulted in a population growth rate reaching an unprecedented 1% per year. Thus every year, we add almost 1.35 million people to our demography. This population outburst has been accompanied by its own set of vices that plague India and sedates its transition from a developing nation to a developed one.
IMPENDING SITUATION
Indian leaders at the very outset had acknowledged vices of unabated growth of population, thus becoming the first nation in the world to adopt a population control stance in its core policy framework for the nation. Moreover, when the first parliament of India was convened, the incumbent government included population control as one of its prime objectives in the government’s five-year plan to combat this predicament. Subsequently, every other five-year plan of India included family planning as one of its core issues.
Measures toward population control reached their all-time high during the emergency in 1976-78 when the Indira Gandhi government implemented a forced sterilization programme across the nation to vigorously enforce her government’s two-child policy. India is a country where manhood has been synonymous with a person being capable of impregnating his wife. The sterilization programme was a tough sell, with most rejecting it as a method of family planning. Thus, men who already had two kids were forcefully sterilized without requesting permission to do this. This led to the sterilization of more than 6.2 million people around the nation, and the initiative lasted throughout the emergency period resulting in some fatal cases.
On the legislative front, there has been numerous ancillary legislation in India promoting population control indirectly. Prominent among them being the Sarda Act of 1929. This act was amended in 1978, raising the statutory minimum age to get married for women from 14 to 18 and men from 18 to 21, followed by the new Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. Provincial governments, on their part, have also, through their numerous legislations and orders, tried to promote family planning. One such illustration is that of the Haryana government, who in their Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 made it a statutory necessity for an individual contesting for the position of Sarpanch (head of the village) to have at most 2 children. Thus anyone having more than two children was not qualified to be Sarpanch. These legislations indirectly provided the impetus to the government’s family planning measures but failed to bring in any concrete result.
WAY FORWARD
The biggest hurdle in India’s bid toward population control is the lack of a proper nationwide population control framework. Instead, the government has tried to amalgamate population control measures as an auxiliary provision in legislations having stark different objectives. Moreover, there has not been uniformity in its implementation, which has resulted in people questioning the constitutionality of such a clause under Article 14 (right to equality) and Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) as it differs from state to state with some being harsher than the others.
The only solution in sight is a national framework in the form of legislation that could help the government enforce strict norms to promote family planning throughout the nation. It is not problem-centered in only a handful of places. Moreover, a national framework will provide the country with a uniform set of provisions to counter population explosion. Entry 20A in the Concurrent List (Schedule 7) of the Indian Constitution provides for population control, thus providing both the center and state government power to legislate upon the issue as per the impending situation.
In its bid toward a national framework, The Population Regulation Bill, 2019 (hereinafter “the Bill”) was introduced in the Rajya Sabha to counter the menace of unabated population growth. The bill proposes a twofold solution to the incumbent predicament by providing incentives as well as ramifications.
The incentives are in the form of relaxation. Financial support to those who abide by the norms stipulated in the Bill, ranging from preference to a single child in admission into a premier educational institution like IIMs and IITs to loans from banks and financial institutions at a nominal rate of interest enumerated in section 5 of the said Bill. Furthermore, the bill also provides punitive measures against those who defy provisions enumerated in the Bill by procreating more than two children. These punitive measures against the couple can range from imposition of financial constraints over the couple to reduction or even bar on subsidies and benefits under section 7 of the Bill. The Bill adopts the principle that “Every reasonable man responds to incentives.” If brought into effect, the Bill will provide a comprehensive framework for the central and state governments to provide for measures related to population control. Moreover, population controls being under the head of Concurrent list; State governments are also bestowed with the power to legislate upon the matter and make necessary changes upon impending needs of their states, making it more effective while at the same time keeping the basic structure of the Act uniform throughout the nation.
Besides the Population Regulation Bill, 2019, The Constitutional (Amendment) Bill 2020 was also introduced in the Rajya Sabha, which seeks to amend the constitution and add article 47A to the constitution imposing an obligation on the government formulate norms to promote small families. The proposed Article 47A reads as follows,
“The State shall promote small family norms by offering incentives in taxes, employment, education, etc. to its people who keep their family limited to two children and shall withdraw every concession from and deprive such incentives to those not adhering to the small family norm, to keep the growing population under control.”
A close reading of both Bills will help us infer the evident fact that both these bills are complementary to each other and are meant to the same end. While one provides for a constitutional backing enforcing a constitutional obligation on the government to control population outbursts, the other, i.e., The Population Regulation Bill, 2019, will provide a thorough framework for implementation to bring the constitutional obligation into effect.
CONCLUSION
Population outburst is the biggest impediment that India faces right now as its impact resonates in every niche of our nation. This outburst has wrenched numerous government initiatives as a huge population poses considerable impediment during its implementation. Especially when the government has limited resources at its disposal, this task becomes more cumbersome. The government has to cater to unlimited demand with a limited supply of vital resources. A proper legislative framework is the only way forward with no other feasible option insight that can provide us with swift relief and provide us with a way to counter this menace, which is a roadblock to our nation’s progress.