Oppn members fear Bill to regulate population will victimise women

New Delhi: Indian women of this generation will be the biggest victims of a private member bill that seeks to regulate population by promoting two-child per couple policy, opposition members said in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

Taking part in a discussion over the Population Regulation Bill, 2019 moved by BJP's Rakesh Sinha, opposition members Fauzia Khan (NCP) and L Hanumanthaiah

(Congress) also expressed apprehension that the move is targeted at a particular

community and if passed, it will further marginalise the marginalised.

"The biggest victims of the bill will be Indian women in general of this generation, irrespective of any community," Khan asserted.

She said that as such at present many women in India can't refuse marriage or having children and they are also forced to undergo non-voluntary

birth control measures. Irrespective of their health, they are forced to undergo pregnancy for the want of a boy child, she said.

Manoj Kumar Jha (RJD) said no law should lead to victimisation of women. "There is maximum possibility of victimisation of women in this," he said participating in the discussion on the bill.

Amar Patnaik (BJD) said while one may think that legislative and coercive measures offer the best way to achieve population control, history showed otherwise.

"... history, not just in this country but world over, including the US, is witness to the fact that strong abortion and population control laws

have not worked," Patnaik said, adding the logic that development is the best population control measure still "holds good".

Khan said,"The bill carries the potential to systematically alter the India's social fabric itself... It will allow the government to stand aside and watch as children and their parents die for lack of healthcare

and protection." She alleged that a false propaganda

has been spread that the birthrate of Muslims is outpacing those of Hindus through "statements by many prominent leaders, specially in election meetings".

She further said the bill "offers to perpetuate a long-standing anxiety around India's population growth but takes on a particularly dangerous turn by attaching reproductive lives and children to direct exclusion from polity".

Arguing that India's population growth rate is already slowing down and the current situation is not worrisome, she said, "Considering a demographic shift (has) already occurred and is intensifying, the bill will only further marginalise the already marginalised."

Opposing the bill, Hanumanthaiah said across the country propaganda has been made that a particular religion or a community is reproducing more and that is why the population is going up but it is totally false and the myth has to be broken. Instead, he said, "Take actions on so many socio-economic factors of the country and see that we are a healthy society and a

healthy Bharat."