UP: VHP opposes Yogi govt's population control bill, seeks changes

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is facing opposition to his government's draft population control bill. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has come out against the bill asking the UP government to remove the one-child policy norm from the bill. The saffron outfit has said that the policy is likely to lead to furthering of the imbalance between different communities and contraction of the population as well.

The saffron outfit has also asked the Yogi Adityanath government to remove "the anomaly" of rewarding or punishing the child, instead of the parents, from the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill, 2021.

Sections of the bill, which incentivise public servants and others to have only one child in the family, go "well beyond the said objects", VHP working president Alok Kumar has said.

He also suggested to the UP law commission to reconsider the objective of the bill that seeks to bring down the total fertility rate in Uttar Pradesh to 1.7 within a certain time frame.