Union health ministry hails Assam's two-child norm

Union health ministry hailed Assam's new child norm. The Assam cabinet on Monday evening had decided that people with more than two children will not be eligible for government jobs after January 1, 2021.

New Delhi:Senior officials in the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday hailed two-child norms being adopted by the Assam government. According to reports, the officials said that decision taken by the Assam government could definitely inspire more other states to follow the step to control the population.

The Assam cabinet on Monday evening decided that people with more than two children will not be eligible for government jobs after January 1, 2021. In fact, the Assam government had in 2017 drafted a policy on population growth. At 31,169,272 population according to the 2011 census, the state had registered a 16.93 percent growth in 10 years.

Assam Health and Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had earlier said legislators must adhere to the family planning norms and the state would take up the issue with the central government.

However, the two-child norm decision is not a sudden move, but a logical progression of September 2017 "Population and Women Empowerment Policy of Assam" that advocated the move and also suggested that existing government staff must follow it.

India became a signatory to the International Conference on Population and Development Declaration in 1994. According to which, India committed to international community that it will honour the individual right of the couples to decide freely the number of children they want to have and also decide spacing between the birth of their kids.

A few states like Rajasthan, Maharastra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, too, have adopted similar population control policy.

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