Populous Groups Responsible for Population Explosion: Urkhao Brahma

Our Correspondent

KOKRAJHAR: Questioning the two-child norm in Assam, former Rajya Sabha MP Urkhao Gwra Brahma said that the majority of populous groups were responsible for the population explosion. He said the two-child policy during the time of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had largely affected the tribal and weaker sections of people in India as their population declined drastically but not the majority of populous groups of people.

Brahma questioned the population control policy in Assam. He said he had always a limited and complex understanding in that regard. “As I understand, the two-child norm is not a general law, it is only as a principle to be followed specifically for certain purposes that may be possible within the ambit of the state power. A family may be restricted from getting government jobs and contesting local body elections if they have more than two children but no one can be barred from having a private-sector job or from doing business, doing labour, obtaining contracts and shop licenses,” he said.

Brahma said the population policy was nowhere a generalized policy but marginalized groups always enjoyed special relaxation everywhere because their population kept decreasing. He said the first family planning programme launched in India affected largely the tribal people in Assam, not the majority groups because it was not followed by them. He reiterated that sterilization and birth control were done by adopting various aggressive measures in tribal areas but not in the general area. Not only the tribal people but numerically the weaker sections become scapegoats of such policies, he said.

Urkhao Brahma alleged that for population explosion, majority or populous groups were always responsible, not the minority groups and therefore, such law should come with clearer terms for them. “Population strength becomes their way of upholding command over political power, economy, culture, and language,” he said and added that unless such policy was linked with fundamental duty, one could not expect practical execution of the policy.

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