BJP MPs’ formula: If more than two kids, deny benefits to parents or a generation

Speaking on the bill, BJP’s Ravindra Kumar Ray (Kodarma, Jharkhand) said, “Anyone who has more than two children should not get any benefits from the government. That person, family, couple and even the child should be denied all government benefits. In fact, the child cannot be blamed here. But he or she should always remember that ‘my irresponsible father never thought about my future’. Then if he walks on a controlled path, the future generation can get the benefits. However, one generation has to be deprived of the benefits,” Ray said.

Introducing the bill, Sharma urged the government to amend the National Population Policy 2000. “I wish to say before you that a National Population Policy 2018 should be made. It should be a two-child policy,” Sharma said. If a family has more than two children, he suggested, the third child should be deprived of subsidies and a government job, and he/she should not contest elections either.

Sharma, who suggested creation of a separate “Ministry of Population Regulation”, said the population of UP and Bihar was higher than in other states. As per a study, he said, eight districts of western Uttar Pradesh, including Moradabad, were going to experience a population explosion.

The rising population was leading to ghettoisation of one community, Sharma added, and asked whether it is “not important that communities should know each other instead of segregating from each other”.

Incidentally, the RSS, in a three-day meet in Jharkhand in 2015, had passed a resolution on the “Challenge of imbalance in the population growth rate” asking the Centre to “re-formulate” the national population policy to address the “demographic imbalance” caused by the rise in Muslim population as reflected in Census data on religious communities.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey (Godda, Jharkhand) said women should be made aware of the dangers of population explosion “or else there could be a chance that their wards could turn out to be notorious criminals… due to lack of attention and basic amenities.” He wanted a special policy to discourage people from having more than two children.