BJP MP in India says couples should get ‘No Objection Certificate’ before having 3rd child

Patna: A Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian from Bihar has kicked up a fresh controversy by suggesting a peculiar idea for stabilising the population boom.

Ajay Nishad, who represents Muzaffarpur in the Lok Sabha, suggested that every couple in India should seek a “No Objection Certificate” (NOC) from the government before bearing their third child. He said he would soon call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urge him to formulate law based on this idea to check the population growth, which he said is hampering the country’s growth.

“I am perturbed by the population boom in the country and hence have prepared a proposal. Under this proposal, it will become mandatory for couples to obtain an NOC from the government if they want to give birth to their third child,” the parliamentarian told the media on Saturday evening.

Threats to country’s progress

Nishad, who also happens to be state BJP’s vice-president, said the rapid population growth has been posing serious threats to country’s progress as a huge part of the budget was being used to feed the population. According to him, his suggestion should be strictly implemented until the Indian government comes out with some harsh laws for population control.

According to his suggestion, couples with only one child should be given special package for all development schemes such as housing, ration and employment facilities whereas the couples with two children should have some benefits of some special government schemes. “But those with more that two children should be denied the benefits of all government schemes,” he proposed.

He is third BJP parliamentarian from Bihar to raise the pitch for the some firm population control law. Earlier, federal minister for animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries Giriraj Singh had sought a strict population control law to be applicable to everyone irrespective of religion.

“Population can be an asset and it can also be a liability. In the case of India, this has become imperative to control the population boom. Our population is a little above 15 per cent of the global population,” the minister had told the media last year.

In July 2019, Rajya Sabha Member Rakesh Sinha had introduced a private member’s Bill — the Population Regulation Bill, 2019 — in the upper house of the Parliament with the objective to control the population growth in India. The proposed bill signed by 125 parliamentarians suggested that the people with more than two living children should be banned from holding elected office, denied financial benefits and free rations under the government’s public distribution system.