Daijiworld Media Network
Thiruvanthapuram, Sep 26: The harsh steps recommended by Justice V R Krishna Iyer Commission against parents deciding to get their third child, have kicked up a storm in Kerala.
The commission has proposed that parents choosing to have a third child should be penalized and jailed, and all social benefits and recognitions should be snatched away from them. The commission has come up with these recommendations as a measure to contain population explosion in the state.
The commission says that the father of the third child should be sentenced to three months simple imprisonment even when his wife is pregnant, and not less than Rs 10,000 should be imposed on him as fine. The 12-member commission also has said that religious or political groups should not be allowed to derail the population control measures. It says that ethnic groups, religions, sect, tribe, caste, etc of a person should not come in the way of enforcing population control measures.
Dr Irudaya Rajan, authority on population studies, said that the above recommendation which is draconian is irrelevant in the state, where an overwhelming majority of parents have two or less children. He said he expects the state to start to show negative population growth within a decade from now.
He added that with increasing levels of education among women, high cost of hospitalization and late marriages, child birth rate has dwindled over the last 15 years. He argued that the parents should be encouraged to have at least two children. He pointed out the disastrous results of the one-child norm enforced by communist China in favour of his arguments.
The commission has also recommended cash incentive of not more than Rs 50,000 to girls who marry after 19, and have their first child after attaining 20 years of age. Some other incentives have also been recommended for late marriages and delayed child birth.
Many including some religious groups have been vociferously saying that the state cannot interfere with the child-bearing decisions of the parents, and that the recommendations, if adopted as law, violate fundamental rights. They have been arguing that having more people is actually advantageous as they comprise human resources of a country.
The increasing opposition emerging from various quarters in the state, which question the practicability and legal validity of the commission’s recommendations, have forced the government to conduct a detailed study of the commission’s recommendations before taking a decision. Perhaps, these recommendations may never become law, if the legal complications connected with the enforcement of recommendations and conditions prevailing in other states of the country are taken into consideration.