Patna: Once again, the population control policy has become the eye of the storm in the country. The issue has sparked debate after the move of Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma who proclaimed that the state government will soon implement a two-child policy for availing the benefits of government schemes.
In Bihar, the issue has heated up after the statement of Giriraj Singh, the flamboyant leader of BJP who supported Assam CM's stand stating that those who do not support the move do not love the country. Giriraj issued a statement on social media stating that the increasing population has become a sin for the country and the decision of Sarma is in the interest of the nation.
However, the NDA partner JDU is singing a different tune on the same issue. Political observers feel that despite knowing the repercussions of population blast the ruling party JDU has maintained a low profile on the issue to woo the minority voters.
This is not the first time Nitish's JDU has kept mum or sung different tunes on the issue supported by the saffron party. Earlier also, JDU showed their rigidness over contentious topics like triple talaq and NRC apart from the uniform civil code.
Not only Giriraj, but several other leaders of the BJP have also started demanding a similar policy in Bihar for population control.
When questioned about the two-child policy, Nitish did not give a clear answer but gave his own justification about the Bihar government doing enough on this front.
Speaking to reporters in Delhi yesterday, CM Nitish Kumar referred to a survey and said that the survey showed that if girls in Bihar are educated up to the 10th class then the state maintains a steady pace in the country's population ratio while if the girls are educated up to 12th class, the state will maintain a lower rate in the country's population ratio, indicating that more educated girls can lead to lower fertility rate in the state.
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"So based on this, the Bihar government has decided to open Higher Secondary School in every panchayat. If girls are literate then the fertility rate would automatically come down. We have been doing a lot of work on this front to lower down the fertility rate and we are also getting the results. Slowly and gradually, the population of Bihar will decrease," Nitish said.
In the backdrop of the statement issued by union minister Giriraj Singh, it is not an easy task for the JDU leaders to counter him with a similar tone as both have their own political interest. JDU wants to gain the minority's goodwill whereas BJP wants to polarise the voters in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh election due next year.
Congress MLC Prem Chandra Mishra while speaking to ETV Bharat said, “The NDA leaders have started this debate on the pretext of UP election due next year. The BJP leaders wanted to communalise the issue so that they could polarise the voters. Why is the issue cropping up from the BJP ruled state only, why not other states. Congress has always supported the concept of small family theory but to make people follow it I don't think there is a requirement to bring any provision or forcefully implement the policy.”
He further said, “Government should create awareness on this front but if BJP has decided to do politics on this issue then it proves their intention that the saffron party wants to make the ground before the UP election from now onwards. They are doing this to take the issue on an extreme level so that tensions could be created in the society followed by polarisation. The claims of the BJP that people would be able to avail the government scheme is equally awful. Is this the only way to give the benefit of government schemes to the people? On which basis the government was running their earlier schemes? It also proves that BJP leaders in Bihar have admitted that no development has taken place in the leadership of Nitish in the last 16 years.”
Political expert Dr Sanjay Kumar too questioned the timing of the issue, however, he stressed that there was a need for some steps to tackle the increasing population.
“The country will not run on the basis of what JDU and BJP leaders say. The kind of population explosion has taken place in recent times, it has become very important to control the population. At the same time, I would also like to add that why the issue has been raised suddenly and I also question the timing of the debate, “Sanjay said.
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He further said, “Nutrient deficient babies are being born and the government has failed to provide good health and education facilities. There is no quality of life and just because a certain section of the population will get upset it does not mean that political leaders have the right to play with the future of the nation. Giriraj Singh's statement is biased. Population control should not be the agenda of BJP which the party wants to implement nor the agenda of JDU to keep Muslims in good humuor. India's population is around 140 crore and Bihar is around 12 crore. Do we really have the resources to feed them? So sooner or later you have to stick with some kind of population control policy."
It is evident from the fact that according to Family planning 2020, Bihar has the highest fertility rate in India. This means that on average, a woman from Bihar is likely to give birth to more children than women in any other state.
Notably, the mass sterilisation (nasbandi) in the name of family planning policy started by Sanjay Gandhi had shaken the Indira Gandhi government in 1975. It would be interesting to see how the issue is taken up in the coming days and also during the UP election.
