Laudable Move of Assam Government in India to Control Population
India’s population which was around 35 crore in 1950 is now around 130 crore.
( September 21, 2017, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Assam government has approved a proposal to insist that each family in the state should have not more than two children. The proposal of the Assam government is to deny several privileges to those bearing more than two children including the denial of state government jobs. They cannot contest in the local body elections.
This is a much needed step and Government of Assam deserves compliments for this bold and laudable initiative.
India’s population which was around 35 crore in 1950 is now around 130 crore. While it is gratifying that the longevity of Indians have much improved from 35 years to 65 years in the last 70 years due to advancement in medical science, the fact is that the birth rate has not significantly fallen.
While the production of agricultural products like rice, wheat , sugarcane etc. and several industrial products have increased enormously in the last 70 years, this is still not found to be adequate since the population has increased to an alarming level. This cannot go on. India will not be able to meet the needs of such huge population in the future ,with the national population continuing to further increase at around 1.5% per annum.
China effectively controlled the population growth by imposing one child norm China has dictatorial form of governance and it can implement it’s measures ruthlessly. India cannot do this with it’s present democratic set up and free for all scenario.
India is now paying a very big price due to it’s huge population growth and control of population is a pre condition for India to emerge as a strong world power and maintain harmony and peace in the country.
In the last three years, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken on many themes of national importance and introduced several proactive measures to improve the quality of life for the Indians. However, it appears that Mr. Narendra Modi has not spoken about the need for population control. If he has expressed any view on this, it is really not known to large section of the country men and any such news is not in the public domain.
Many well meaning people in India are really finding fault with Mr. Modi for ignoring this grave issue of population explosion.
In such circumstances, the government of Assam has shown the way for the country by proposing the population control in the state. In the year 2001, the population in Assam was 2.66 crore and in the year 2011 census, the population in Assam was assessed as 3.12 crore. In the last six years after 2011, the population in Assam must have grown further.
What is particularly disturbing is that this subject of population explosion is not being discussed much in the print and visual media in India , which are chasing news all the time and conduct heated debates, whether it is important or unimportant subject.
It is necessary that the government of India should emulate the lead given by the Assam government in checking the population growth. It is absolutely necessary that Mr. Modi should speak on this subject at every opportunity. Mr. Modi should ask the other state governments in the country to follow the policy of Assam government in this regard.
In any case, the nation should be grateful to Assam government and it’s Chief Minister for recognizing this grave issue , which gives hopes that there are government and leadership in the state which can be purposive and bold in taking measures of far reaching significance.
