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Baba Ramdev Advocates Denial of Rights to Third Child As Population Control Measure

The Wire Staff
May 27, 2019
Ramdev also called for a ban on cow slaughter and a countrywide ban on liquor.

New Delhi: At a press conference in Haridwar on Sunday, Yoga guru Baba Ramdev said that the government should enact legislation that prohibits the voting rights and denies government services to the third child of a family to curb population growth.

Stressing that India’s population would not be able to bear a population of over 150 crore, Ramdev called for punitive measures, such as the denial of the right to vote and contest elections, against the third child in a family. He claimed that enacting such a law would prevent people from giving birth to more children, “no matter which religion they belong to”.

Responding to Baba Ramdev’s remarks, All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi used the example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the third child of his family to question Ramdev’s proposition.

At the press conference, Ramdev also called for a ban on cow slaughter and a countrywide ban on liquor. He claimed that the only way to stop the regular instances of conflict between cow smugglers and cow vigilantes was by banning cow slaughter.

Calling for a ban on liquor, Ramdev said that “In Islamic countries, liquor is banned,” and that if liquor “can be banned there, then why not in India?”

Also read: A Two-Child Policy Won’t Take India Closer to ‘Vikas’

Previously also, in January 2019, Ramdev had suggested denying voting rights of those who have more than two children as one of the means of controlling the country’s population. Ramdev also added, “In this country, people who do not get married like me should be given special consideration.”

In August 2018, 125 parliamentarians had sent a petition to the president, asking for the implementation of a two-child norm in the country.

But such policies will have a fall out – experts have found that such policies are bound to skew the general balance.

A study, conducted between 2001 and 2004 to explore the consequences of two-child norms in five states – Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, MP, Odisha and Rajasthan – found an increase in cases of desertion and bigamy, neglect and death of female infants, cases of pre-natal sex determination and induced abortion of female foetus, child given away for adoption etc.

As per a 2018 East Asia Forum report, in 2050, India’s population is projected to be 1.69 billion which will be higher than that of China.

The population of China is estimated to be 1.31 billion in the same year.

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