The campaign Bats for two child commitments in country

New Delhi, June 2: As India's population is growing and threatening to overtake China, a campaign launched by a group of taxpayers 'associations of Bharat wants to implement two states in each country in the country, thus using resources and taxpayers' money. Critics wonder if that walk is the right way. The two-year-old campaign, which now has over two lakh members -- including celebrities such as Ajay Devgan, Suniel Shetty, Priyanka Chopra and Virendra Sehwag -- has also written to all the chief ministers to come up with a population control policy on the lines of Assam.

Assam in April announced a draft population policy, which suggested denial of government jobs to people with more than two children and making education up to university level free for all girls. According to the campaign, tax is being paid to independent citizens, and the country has grown in a poverty-free and non-criminal environment, but over the years, the crime rate and poverty rose. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) -- the number of children who would be born per woman during childbearing age -- instead of decreasing, has gone up.
"In years, governments have not done anything to control the population, instead they have only caste-based politics. In 1961, the population below the poverty line increased by 19 crores, and in 2011 it increased to 36 crores. Why the increase? Is this why the citizens are paying tax for," questioned Manu Gaur, National President of the campaign, also known as Taxab.

Stating that it was important for every state to have a two-child norm to make the country prosperous, Gaur told that with the continuity in same TFR, India's population would hit 200 crore in the near future. "Are we ready for such a situation," he asked. For a stable population, a country needs a TFR of 2.1, whereas Indian states have a TFR as high as 3-3.2. "It is quite evident that with such a TFR, India cannot grow. Today, every well-off nation has a TFR of 2.1 or below," said Gaur, adding that in India government jobs and welfare schemes should always be for the families having two children.

According to the campaign, India has invested a considerable amount of resources in the name of family planning but no significant breakthrough has been made towards population control. "Such policies cannot yield results. Until we educate the couple and let them realise that more children is indeed a problem, the problem can't be solved. We have to make contraceptives available in the rural areas, whose absence is one of the biggest reasons for population growth," Suneeta Mittal, Head of Gynaecology at Fortis Healthcare, told.

Mittal, formerly the Head of Gynaecology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, said that couples needed to be informed about other family planning methods, such as spacing and permanent contraceptives, instead of implementing the two-child policy. Population Foundation of India (PFI), an NGO involved in various family planning policies of the country, in its recent letter to Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, also raised its reservations against its draft population policy. "We sincerely ask you not to go ahead with the two children's regulations. In China, a child policy is state legislation for 35 years, and by 2015 the country has been forced to force it. The country is now in the middle of the population crisis, "the PFI letter said to Sharma. According to the PFI, China's dramatic post-1978 economic boom and rising revenues and high levels of college levels and rapid urbanization have also reduced birth rates despite birth birth plans.