School teacher terminated for giving birth to third child in Madhya Pradesh, approaches court

The woman complained that many of her colleagues had more than two children but no action had been taken against them.

Bhopal:A teacher of a government school in Agar Malwa has approached court after she was terminated for flouting the Madhya Pradesh government's "two-child policy". Rahmat's third child was born in 2009.

The Madhya Pradesh civil service rules state that a candidate who has more than two children, one of whom was born on or after January 26, 2001 shall not be eligible for appointment in any government service or post. The woman, Rahmat Bano, who taught chemisty in Government Middle School in Bija Nagri of Agar Malwa district said she was aware of the rules but could not abort the child as risks were involved. She complained that there are many government employees, including both male and female colleages, who have more than two children but they were not acted against.

When Rahmat started her job in the school in 2003 she was mother of one child as her daughter was born in 2000. In 2006, she gave birth to her elder son Mushahid and three years later her younger son, Mohammad Musharraf was born. "My pregnancy had gone undetected in the initial stage. By the time I realised it was too late and doctors advised me against abortion," Rahmat said.

Rahmat said that she is teaching in the school for the last 20 years and has done MSc in chemistry along with BEd. "Now, I have been terminated at the age of 44. Where will I go and get another job at this age? Is it such a big crime to be a mother? A woman works in my department who is mother of four children. But, no action has been taken against her. So, why is it that only I am being targeted?" she asked.

In 2019, a court had ordered that promotions and increments of such employees should be withheld but had ruled out terminating them. Apart from Madhya Pradesh, the two-child policy has been adopted by Assam and Uttar Pradesh to control population rise.