The Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission has prepared a proposed draft Bill for population control, under which a two-child norm will be implemented and promoted.
After the law comes into force, a person with more than two children will be debarred from several benefits such as government-sponsored welfare schemes and from contesting elections to the local authority or any body of the local self-government, the draft says. Ration card units will be limited to four persons.
A person contravening the law will also become ineligible to apply for State government jobs and barred from promotion in government services and any kind of subsidy.
The provisions will come into force one year after the date of the publication of the gazette, the draft says.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will on July 11 launch the Uttar Pradesh Population Policy 2021-2030 on the occasion of World Population Day.
Sops for sterilisation
The Commission has uploaded the proposed draft Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill, 2021 and invited suggestions till July 19.
As per the draft, several incentives have been provided to people, including public servants, if they adopt the norm by undergoing voluntary sterilisation.
The incentives include a 3% increase in the employer’s contribution fund under national pension; two additional increments during the entire service; subsidy towards purchase of plot or house site or build house; rebate on charges for utilities such as water, electricity and house tax; and soft loan for construction or purchasing a house at nominal rates of interest.
A public servant or common citizen who adopts a one-child norm will receive additional benefits such as free health care facility and insurance coverage to the child till age 20; preference to the single child in admission in all education institutions, including but not limited to the Indian Institutes of Management and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences; free education up to the graduation level; scholarship for higher studies in case of a girl child and preference to a single child in government jobs.
Cash incentive
A couple living below the poverty line who have only one child and undergoes voluntary sterilisation, shall be eligible for payment of a one-time ₹80,000 if the single child is a boy and ₹1 lakh if it is a girl.
Explaining the reasons for bringing out the draft Bill, the Commission headed by Justice Aditya Nath Mittal said there were limited ecological and economic resources at hand in Uttar Pradesh and it was necessary to control and stabilise the population for the promotion of sustainable development with more equitable distribution.
