The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Assam, eyeing a two-child policy in the long run, has decided to constitute eight sub-groups toward stabilising the State’s population.
The decision was taken after a meeting between Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and indigenous Assamese Muslim leaders on Sunday.
“If we have to be among the top five States, we have to manage our population explosion,” he told journalists, adding that the participants of the meeting agreed on the “real threat” the population explosion in some parts of Assam posed to the development of the State in the economic sense.
He said the Muslim leaders sought the formation of sub-groups to achieve the goal. Each group will work in specific sectors such as health, education, financial inclusion and women empowerment besides population stabilisation.
“The inputs of these sub-groups will help us prepare a five-year roadmap when we meet again after three months,” Dr. Sarma said.
He said he would meet the organisations and leaders of Bengal-origin migrant Muslims within three days for a similar initiative, while the government would be conducting a series of meetings in the next three months on population management.
The Chief Minister underlined the cultural distinction between migrant Muslims who settled in Assam a little more than a century ago and indigenous Assamese Muslims who have a 600-year-old history.