UP’s new population policy aims to lower birth rate
Yogi Adityanath lays stress on awareness among the people and education for stabilising population growth
LUCKNOW : Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday unveiled Uttar Pradesh’s population policy 2021-2030 that aims to bring the birth rate down to 2.1 per thousand population by 2026 and to 1.9 by 2030. At present, the birth rate in the state is 2.7 per thousand.
While releasing the policy, Adityanath laid stress on awareness among the people and education for stabilising population growth.
“Our first job is to create awareness among the masses to control population growth,” the chief minister said, while addressing a gathering on the occasion.
“Population control is directly connected with awareness among the people and poverty,” he said.
He also said the new population policy had been formulated keeping all sections of the society in mind.
The new policy has emphasised on increasing access to contraceptive measures under the family planning programme, proper system for safe abortion and improved medical facilities.
It also lays stress on stabilising the population by providing accessible solution to impotence/infertility and reducing infant and maternal mortality rate.
Adityanath also spoke about connecting every member of the society with the new population policy so that it does not affect statistics (population statistics).
He mentioned the need for a gap between two children to bring down the child mortality rate and to check malnutrition.
Another feature of the policy is to ensure better facilities for the elderly and better education, besides health and nutrition for adolescents between 11 and 19 years.
The chief minister also inaugurated 11 RT-PCR labs in as many districts across the state and launched an app that will provide information about health centres in Uttar Pradesh.
The Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission has already prepared a draft of the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill-2021. The commission has also invited suggestions from public on the bill till July 19.
The draft bill proposes to make people with more than two children ineligible for government jobs, disentitle those already in service to promotions and exclude them from benefits of 77 schemes.
The draft bill also proposes to prohibit people who have more than two children from contesting local bodies elections or receiving any kind of subsidy. It also suggests incentives such as tax rebates for those with up to two children.