New Delhi: Recently, Shiv Sena MP Anil Desai has introduced the Constitutional Amendment Bill to insert a new Article 47A in the section of Directive Principles of State Policy.
The article talks about both incentives for persons who adopt small family norm and punitive action against those who deny adhering to it.
Will the article have positive impact?
According to Dr. Faizan Mustafa, Vice-Chancellor of NALSAR University, the article will have hardly any impact on the society as education can control population explosion and not the law.
Supporting his views, he cited the fertility rate in various states of the country. The data proved that fertility is high in northern states of the country and it is below replacement rate in southern India.
Such laws already exist in States
Laws to control population already exist in some states wherein, having more than two children bars persons from contesting local body election and in some states, persons who have more than two children are banned from government jobs.
Does it create much impact?
No, it has not created much impact as currently, people are hardly able to get government jobs. Many are opting for jobs in private companies.
Are Muslims responsible for population growth?
As per the data cited by Faizan Mustafa, Muslims contributed very less to the population growth of the country i.e., 16.7% in 1971-2011 whereas, Hindu population growth contributed 77.4% in the same period.
Population growth vs Inequality
Inequality is the real problem of the country as Oxfam reported that India’s top 1% bag 73% of the nation’s wealth.
It proves that the real problem of the country is inequality and not population growth.