BJP government’s bid to control the increasing population of the country has been taken very seriously by the Assam government as it took the first step on Monday by deciding that no government jobs will be given to candidates having more than two children after January 1, 2021.
The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting held late Monday evening that also adopted a New Land Policy, which will give three bighas of agricultural land to landless indigenous people and half a bigha for constructing a house.
A communique from the Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s public relations cell stated that those having more than two children will not be considered for government jobs with effect from January 1, 2021 as per the small family norm.
In September 2017, the Assam Assembly had passed the ‘Population and Women Empowerment Policy of Assam’ that specified that job candidates with two children only would be eligible for government employment and the existing government staff were to strictly follow the two children family norm.
“New Land Policy was adopted. Three bighas of land will be given to landless indigenous people. Landless people will be offered half a bigha to construct their houses. These cannot be sold for 15 years,” the CMO statement said.
The growing population has been Central government’s concern too as Prime Minister Modi in his Independence Day speech said, “We need to worry about population explosion…This rapidly increasing population poses various new challenges for us and our future generations.”
The BJP government in Centre had already introduced ‘Population Regulation Bill, 2019’, in Rajya Sabha in July that calls for punitive action against people with more than two living children and making them devoid of all government services. Member of Parliament Rakesh Sinha proposed disqualification from being an elected representative, denial of financial benefits and reduction in benefits under the Public Distribution System (PDS) for people having more than two children. The bill also suggests that government employees should give an undertaking that they will not procreate more than two children.