Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 11

A day after the state law commission unveiled the draft Bill to incentivise couples who do not have more than two children, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday released the new population policy 2021-2030 and assured that the new plan won’t be class or community-specific.

Impediment to progress

Population growth is directly related to poverty and illiteracy. It creates obstacles in development. UP will control population with education, awareness and better health facilities. -  Yogi Adityanath, UP  CM

“Population control measures will not be confined to any class or section in UP. Population growth is directly related to poverty and illiteracy. It creates obstacles to development. UP will control population with education, awareness and better health facilities,” said the Chief Minister, releasing the new policy on the occasion of World Population Day.

Adityanath said the effort of population stabilisation was linked to wider awareness in society.

“Widespread awareness is the only tool for family planning. It will be difficult to achieve the goal of population stabilisation unless we run an awareness campaign keeping in mind all sections of society. All such sections must be identified and a mass awareness programme should be launched,” the CM said at an event at his official residence, allaying fears that the two-child policy unveiled yesterday would target Muslims. On the provision to bar violators of the two-child policy from applying for government jobs and contesting local body elections, Adityanath said the implementation of the proposed legislation would focus more on incentivising rather than punishing dis-incentivising persons.

“Population explosion can create obstacles to the path of development. Nations and states that have taken steps in this regard have seen positive results, but more needs to be done,” said the CM of the most populous state which has a population of more than 24 crore.

Under the population policy 2021-2030, a target has been set to bring the gross fertility rate to 2.1 by 2026 and to 1.9 by 2030. As per the National Family Health Survey 4 (concluded in 2015), UP’s total fertility rate was 3 in rural areas and 2.7 in urban areas.