Petition in SC seeks stringent population control law

• A Mathura resident has asked the Supreme Court to direct the government to “ascertain the feasibility” of enacting a “stringent population control law.”
• The petitioner said such a law would secure the fundamental rights of citizens, including the “right to peaceful sleep” along with “clean” air, water, food, health and shelter.

Impact on women

• “The impact that repeated child-bearing has on women is seldom highlighted outside niche areas,” the petition said.
• It said the “incidents of grand multiparity, which is defined as more than four viable births, in developing countries like India is 20% while it is only 2% in developed countries”.

Government’s stand

• The government said the period between 2001-2011 had witnessed the sharpest decline in decadal growth rate among Indians in a 100 years.
• It said India was a signatory to the Programme Of Action (POA) of the International Conference on Population and Development, 1994, which was unequivocally against coercion in family planning.

Prelims Take Away

• Health indicators
• Supreme Court
• Fundamental rights