Monsoon session: Opposition parties to corner govt over population control issue

Ravi S Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 18

The recent population control laws of BJP-ruled states of Uttar Pradesh and Assam will be in the cross-hairs of the Congress and other Opposition parties in Parliament during the upcoming monsoon session.

Opposition parties would possibly try to force a discussion on the issue in both Houses of Parliament, if the government dithered in the matter.

The Congress, TMC, DMK, and Uttar Pradesh-centric Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party are mulling to corner the Narendra Modi Government over the population control issue in both Houses of Parliament.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday laid bare the Congress line of thinking on population control debate by questioning the wisdom of BJP governments’ move to control the population.

Ramesh echoed the 2018-19 Union Government’s Economic Survey, which says that some states in India will have to prepare for aging population by 2031, not growing population

In effect, Ramesh’s argument is that the country’s population is heading towards stabilisation. The demography basket then will have more of an aging population, contrary to the present position of India being a demographically a young nation.

“Crucial tipping point in demography is when replacement level of fertility reaches 2.1. Subsequently after a generation or two, population will stabilise or begin to decline.Kerala was first in 1988,followed by TN-5 yrs later,” Ramesh tweeted.

“By now, a large majority of Indian States have achieved replacement level of fertility.By 2026, Jharkhand Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and UP will do so with Bihar being the last.”

“I wonder how many in BJP are aware of the basic facts that Modi Sarkar’s own 2018-19 Economic Survey had presented in Parliament in July 2019,” adds Ramesh.