NEW DELHI: A draft bill on population control prepared by Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission proposes to make people with more than two children ineligible for government jobs, disentitle those already in service to promotions and exclude them from the benefits of 77 schemes.
Legal experts says it needs to be seen whether the bill, if passed, will have penal provisions in case of any violation. The draft bill also suggests incentives such as tax rebates for those with two or less children.
There has been a clamour for population-control laws, even though experts say coercive policies will not have the desired effect. In Assam, a law similar to the one that the UP Law Commission has proposed is already in place.
In 2019, the state government approved restrictions on parents with more than two children, while debarring those with more from government jobs. Supreme Court lawyer KV Dhananjay said: “While the law proposed by the UP government is permissible under the Constitution, the will and enthusiasm of future state legislatures to implement it in proper spirit determines whether it makes any impact.
It is common knowledge that such laws do not make much impact unless they involve consensus from a broad spectrum of political parties.”
Highlighting the other perspective, Supreme Court lawyer Virag Gupta said: “On the first reading of the bill, I noticed that mere violation of certain provisions will not attract any criminality. But in present times, when government jobs are already on a lower side, how will the government assure the couples to adhere to such policy?”