UP: THE POPULATION QUESTION

The staid Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission office on Old Jail Road in Lucknow was a hive of activity on July 7. The three-member commission, headed by retired Justice A.N. Mittal, had uploaded a draft of the proposed ‘Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill, 2021’ on its website, ostensibly to garner public opinion, and all the clamour outside was over its contents.

The proposed draft envisages a carrot-and-stick policy to enforce a twochild norm with the stated intention to ‘stabilise’ population growth in the state (see box overleaf ). It also talks about efforts to ‘rebalance’ the population in order to manage the relative numbers of different communities—“Yeh prayas bhi kiya jayega ki vibhinn samudayon ke madhya jansankhya ka santulan bana rahe,” says the policy document.

The coercive details include banning candidates who exceed the norm from government jobs and contesting elections to local bodies, and also declining benefits of state welfare to such families. If the draft bill becomes an act and is implemented, candidates with more than two children will be automatically disqualified for government jobs, or, if in service, for promotions. Private citizens who violate the norms will forfeit benefits under 77 government schemes/ grants.

Within a year of its implementation, all government staff and local body representatives will have to sign an affidavit that they will adhere to the laws. A third child after submitting the affidavit will lead to the dismissal of the employee, while elected representatives will lose their seats and be barred.

The Yogi Adityanath government in

Uttar Pradesh claims the commission has acted on its own, but many have questioned the timing of such a draft population control bill just months before the assembly election in 2022. The Muslim community is particularly aggrieved and fears the law will be yet another weapon to target it in a communally charged election. Maulana Yasoob Abbas, secretary and spokesperson of the All India Shia Personal Law Board, says, “This draft is just an election stunt. A commission appointed by the Yogi government has presented this draft on population control with the election in mind.” Yasoob argues that population control is not an issue endemic to Uttar Pradesh. He says if at all such a law must be made, it should come from the Centre. But commission secretary Sapna Tripathi says, “Population control and family planning are part of item number 20-A on the Concurrent List of the Indian Constitution. Since there is no law for population control, the state can make laws.” The UP State Law Commission, she says, has studied similar laws in Rajasthan, MP and Assam to prepare the draft bill. Rajasthan, for instance, introduced the two-child norm for government jobs back in 1992 (but in July 2018, the state rescinded the order). Commission chairman Justice Mittal explains it further: “UP’s burgeoning population demands that we take steps to curb it. Many states have done so already. If population growth is not checked, unemployment, hunger and other problems will rise in the future.”

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he proposed population control bill also has strict provisions for polygamous couples, overriding religious and personal laws. The two-child strictures will apply to men even if they father them from different wives. The same will apply to women who marry more than once and have more than two children. Maulana Abbas cites these clauses in the bill to press his case that Muslim society is being targeted. Incidentally, the total fertility rates (TFR) of both Hindus and Muslims have shown similar rates of decline in UP over the years. According to the 2001 census, the TFR of Hindus was 4.4 and Muslims 4.8; in the 2011 census, these were down to 2.6 and 2.9, respectively. Shaista Amber, president of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, says, “The decline in TFR indicates that educated people in both societies now have smaller families. It’s illiteracy and unemployment that lead to larger families, and this is true of both communities. The need is not for strict laws on population control but for education and eradication of unemployment.” The Yogi government has dismissed these objections, with Mohsin Raza, minister for minority welfare, saying no religion or segment of the population is being targeted through the proposed bill. But senior advocate at the Allahabad High Court, Abhay Kumar, disagrees: “The proposed bill violates the fundamental rights of individuals. It also has provisions like incentives to people who undergo vasectomy, which will give rise to many controversies. If the bill ever becomes law, there will be a flood of petitions challenging it in court.” Should the Yogi Adityanath government manage to get the bill passed by the House in the next two months, it will be implemented in the UP municipal corporation elections due in November 2022. The uneasiness among the councillors is palpable. In the 118-member house of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation, over half the councillors have more than two children. Even Lucknow mayor Sanyukta Bhatia of the BJP has three children. All these people will be debarred from contesting elections. Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and Sambhal MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq says, “By bringing such a law, the BJP is again trying to win the election by polarising the electorate.” Meanwhile, commission secretary Tripathi is compiling the suggestions on the draft bill. By the afternoon of July 12, she says the commission had received over 4,200 e-mails. “Apart from public opinion, the draft bill was also sent to senior lawmakers. All the suggestions received till July 19 will be compiled and handed over to the chairman. He will take it forward,” she says. The commission plans to submit its final draft to the Yogi government before August 15, after incorporating suggestions on the bill.