The Chief Minister of Assam Shri. Himanta Biswa Sarma ji, who assumed office last month, has been advocating a two-child policy for availing government schemes. On Saturday he announced that his government will gradually implement a two-child policy for availing benefits under specific schemes funded by the state government.
While making the announcement, Sarma ji said, "Be it loan waiver or other govt schemes, population norms will be taken into account. But he also said that the population norms will not apply to tea gardens, SC/ST communities, but will be imposed on all others availing benefits from the government in the future.
This was a follow-up to a resolution passed by the Assembly in September 2017 on the Population and Women Empowerment Policy of Assam. In 2019, the previous BJP government had decided that those with more than two children would not be eligible for government jobs from January 2021.
The proposed population control policy will, however, not be applicable in all the schemes immediately as many of the benefits are funded by the central government.
But, in the case of a scheme like the Chief Minister Awas Yojana is launch in the future, then the two-child policy will be enforced. Similarly, population policy law will gradually be put in place in the case of some chosen schemes,” he said.
Barring those with more than two children from:
- Government jobs: Only candidates with two children or less will be eligible for government jobs
- Contesting local elections: According to the Assam Panchayat (Amendment) Act, 2018, those contesting panchayat polls cannot have more than two children.
- Two-child policy: Government servants shall strictly follow the two-child norm to serve as role models for society.