Behind The BJP’s 2-Child Policies, An Anti-Muslim Agenda That Will Endanger All Indian Women – By Sweta Dash
In July, Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, unveiled a proposed law to curb population growth through a two-child norm backed by a system of incentives and disincentives…. In June, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced a similar two-child norm for state schemes…. Elected representatives of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the central ruling party, have advocated for such policies in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand as well.
These proposals for coercive family planning measures come when fertility rates have been falling in most states…. Experts have said (here, here and here) that coercive policies incentivising one-child or two-child norms have proven to be counterproductive—their unintended consequences include unsafe abortions, coercive targeted sterilisations, spike in female foeticide, reduced access to affordable reproductive and maternal healthcare and more.
The new proposals are also set in a context of Islamophobia and loose talk of Muslim population growth rates endangering Hindus, even though these fly in the face of evidence….
