On the occasion of World population day on 11^th July, 2021, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath announces a new policy on population control for 2021-2030.  It aims to incentivize people to help in population control.

Population of Uttar Pradesh

India’s one-sixth population lives in Uttar Pradesh, which make it India’s most populous state in India. The population in Uttar Pradesh is grown 3.5 times from 46 million in 1901 to 166 million in 2001.The first census recorded was in the year 1901 with a population of 46,647,804 by British India. The population is constantly increasing its growth rate from 6.56 to 25.85% till 2001 and with decreasing growth rate from 25.85 to 20.23% in 2001 to 2011. The Uttar Pradesh population by 2021 will be 236 million and the report of census has been proven right as according to UID, Uttar Pradesh population in 2020 is estimated to be 237 million. And the current population of Uttar Pradesh is approximately 241 million. Which is more than the estimate.  

So here we see how rapidly the population of Uttar Pradesh is increasing and that is why it has become necessary to control the population of Uttar Pradesh.

In view of this, the Chief Minister of UP launching the new policy of population control. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath said that rising population is the root cause of major problems including inequality. “Increasing population can be a hurdle in way of development. Every community has been taken care of in Population Policy 2021-2030,” CM Yogi Adityanath said. Let us, on this ‘World Population Day’, take a pledge to make ourselves and the society aware of the problems arising from the increasing population,” Yogi Adityanath said in a statement.

Objectives of this policy

Under this policy, government will adopt five-pronged approach to control population.

• The Policy will focus on comprehensive arrangements for the care of elderly and will also focus on improved management of education, health, and nutrition for adolescents between 11 and 19 years.
• The policy will look at different strategies and work towards a convergence of existing schemes to streamline population control efforts and improvement in health.
• Health clubs will be set up in schools and digital tracking will be done for newborns, adolescents and elderly people.
• Efforts will be made to increase accessibility of contraceptive measures issued under the Family Planning Programme and provide a proper system for safe abortion.
• Efforts will also be made to maintain demographic balance across different communities and ensure easy availability of advanced health facilities.

Also a population control bill has been prepared by Uttar Pradesh government’s law commission, which promises perks and incentives to government employees and general public who will follow population control measures. The commission has released the final draft of the ‘UP Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021’ and invited suggestions by July 19. According to the draft bill, those people who have more than two children will be debarred from contesting local body polls, applying for government jobs or receiving any kind of subsidy. The draft says it is necessary to control and stabilize the population of the state for the promotion of sustainable development with more equitable distribution.

With this policy, Yogi Adityanath urged for community-centric approach to population control to provide better facilities. People should also take seriously the problem of rising population because without their awareness and help the problem is not possible to overcome.  Both on state level and central level should also adopt some measure to control population growth, keeping in mind rising population.