The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2020 – Two Child Policy
The authors of this blog are Vidya Sagar Pandey, Graduated (LLB) from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (2018), Currently pursuing LL.M from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and Kaushiki Trivedi graduated (LLB) from Banaras Hindu University (2018). Currently pursuing
LL.M from National Law Institute
University, Bhopal.
The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2020[1]
was introduced in Rajya Sabha on 07-02-2020. It was introduced to further amend
the Constitution of India. The Bill was likely to be discussed when Parliament
meets for the second half of the Budget session. This amendment bill is a
private member bill that was introduced by Shiv Sena MP Anil Desai. A private member's
bill is different from a government bill. A bill introduced by the Member of
Parliament (MP) who isn’t a Minister, i.e. a non-government member is known as
the Private Members’ bill. Members of Parliament other than ministers are
private members. Private Members also can move legislative bills or proposals
which he/she thinks are proper to be presented in the Statute Books. However, a
private member can only give a maximum of three notices for the introduction of
Private Member Bill during a Session.
The Bill seeks to amend the
Constitution of India with a view to making provisions by the States to
discourage the people from increasing the size of their family but to encourage
them to keep their families limited to only two children. The Bill consists
that the States shall promote small family norms by offering incentives in taxation, education, home
loans, free healthcare, and better employment opportunities for people who
limit their family size to two children and it shall withdraw every offer and
incentives to those not adhering to the small family norm, to keep the growing
population under control.
Purpose of the Bill
The purpose of the bill is to
control the growth of the population of India. During Independence, India was
still one of the most populous countries with 350 million people. It was the
reason behind becoming the first developing country to start family planning
or birth control programs in 1951. Since then, the population of the country
has quadrupled, with 1.37 billion people in 2019. At present, India hosts 16
percent of the world-wide population with only 2.45 percent of the World
surface area and 4 percent of the water resources. According to the World Population Prospects report, 2019 by the United
Nations,
the population of India is all set to overtake that of China within a decade.
Debate on population is inevitable in a country that may surpass the population
of China, presently the most populous country. According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
The population of India will reach 1.5 billion by 2030 and hit 1.64 billion in
2050.
Features of the Bill
A
new provision Article 47A (Duty of the State to promote small family norm) was
proposed to be incorporated in Part IV of the Constitution which deals with the
Directive Principles of the State Policy.
“After article 47 of the
Constitution, the following article shall be inserted, namely:—47A.
“The State shall promote small
family norms by offering incentives in taxes, employment, education, etc. to its
people who keep their family limited to two children and shall withdraw every the concession from and deprive such incentives to those not adhering to the small
family norm, to keep the growing population under control.’’
STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS
The fact that the population of
India has already crossed over 125 crore is really frightening. The country has
doubled its population only in forty years and is predicted to unseat China as
the world's most populated country in the next couple of decades i.e. by the
year 2050. As per the UN report, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan are those countries
that have the highest rate of growth of population. The current yearly growth
rate in India is 1.02 percent. The population density of the country is 416
people per square kilometer, which ranks 31st in the whole World. Despite the
fact that we have framed a National Population Control Policy, we are the
second-most populous country in the world. Population explosion may cause many
problems for our future generations. For which we have to be concerned about
the population explosion. The Centre as well as State Governments should launch
schemes to tackle it. Our natural resources are extremely over-burdened. The
rate of growth of any country is directly associated with the size of its
population. Natural resources like air, water, land, woods, etc. will be
subjected to overexploitation because of overpopulation. Today, there is a
greater need to keep a robust check on the increase of population. Today, there
is also a need to encourage the people to keep small families by offering tax
concessions, priority in social benefit schemes and school admissions, etc. and
at the same time discourage them from producing more children by withdrawing
tax concessions, imposing heavy taxes and by making other punitive provisions
for violations. Therefore, the Bill seeks to amend the Constitution with a view
to making a provision by the State to discourage the people from increasing their
family and encourage them to keep their family limited to the two children
only.
Shortcomings
The restricted child policy will
create a shortage of educated young people needed to carry on India’s
technological revolution. The problems like gender imbalance, undocumented
children faced by China might be experienced by India. The birth rate in India
is also slowing down to sustainable levels.
●
The norms proposed by the bill are in question
from the beginning. India is a developing country and the contribution of young
people to this development is high. In order to carry on the technological
revolution of India, young educated people are needed. The restriction imposed
by this policy will cause a shortage of young educated people.
●
If we take a look at China's one-child policy, we will
find many problems. There are approx 13 million undocumented children in china
most of them are born outside china’s one-child
policy other than the birth out of marriage. Gender imbalance is also the
worst part of this policy. A strong preference for
boys causes sex-selected abortion,
abandonment, and infanticide. These problems could also come to India by these
amendments.
●
Most importantly, India's birth rate
is slowing down. In 2000, the fertility rate was relatively high at 3.3
children per woman. By 2016, the number had already fallen to 2.3 children.
Furthermore, the current fertility rate in 2020 is 2.2 births per woman, a 0.9% the decline from 2019.
CONCLUSION
The Constitution
(Amendment) Bill, 2020 is crucial in respect of population control in India.
This is not the first time that population control measures
are being demanded by legislative changes. In 2016, BJP MP had also tabled
a private member bill on population control. However, it failed to reach the stage of voting. We really need
population control measures and the proposed law
calls for not more than two children. The impact of these measures would be
better education opportunities, more facilities, less pollution, better wages,
better healthcare, the low burden on taxpayers, less population with more
resources, more expenditures on the betterment of lives could become a reality for
many, more government benefits.
[1]
http://164.100.47.4/BillsTexts/RSBillTexts/Asintroduced/47A-E-7%202%2020.pdf
[2]
http://164.100.47.193/Loksabha/Legislation/billintroduce.aspx
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