‘Rs 10L fine, no voting rights': Cong MLA Bawa Henry seeks 2-child policy in Punjab

Time of India

2 days ago

Jalandhar: The Congress MLA from Jalandhar North, Bawa Henry, on Wednesday submitted a private member's bill to Punjab assembly speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan's office to seek a law for population control in the state.
Titled 'The Population Control Bill 2025', the legislation proposes disincentivising and penalising couples producing more than two children, including revocation of voting rights and imposition of a fine of Rs 10 lakh.
Several states in India have a two-child policy, but most of these laws are restricted to barring a parent of more than two children from contesting local body elections. In some cases, such parents are barred from seeking govt jobs and incentives.
However, this is the first time that there is a demand for revocation of voting rights, imposition of a Rs 10-lakh fine, amore. "Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhawan was not available in his office, so I sent it to him on WhatsApp and then also handed it over to officials in his office.
I shall urge the speaker to table it in the next session," Henry told TOI.
The bill states that if a married couple, having more than two living children, conceives an additional child after a year of the commencement of the law, both spouses will be rendered ineligible for: contesting elections to the state legislature, panchayats, and municipal bodies; exercising voting rights; appointment to any post in the govt and govt-funded institutions; availing benefits under any govt scheme; availing any scholarships or educational scholarships funded by the state; securing any contract, service, or consultancy with the govt; and a monetary penalty not less than Rs 10 lakh per additional child so born.
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The bill proposes forming a state population control and public welfare committee to formulate and implement a comprehensive policy based on a two-child norm.
Fertility rate below replacement level, concerns over demographic changes
Punjab's total fertility rate (TFR) is already below the replacement level of 2.1. The Union ministry of health and family welfare, replying to a question in the Lok Sabha on Dec 12 last year, noted that as per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2019-21, TFR in Punjab was 1.6.
This low rate is despite a large number of working-age migrant families from other states settling in Punjab and adding to the birth rate. TFR among Punjabis could be lower.
Concerns over the changing demography of Punjab has already started becoming a political issue, and it is being blamed on two contrasting trends: scores of young Punjabis moving abroad and producing children there, and migration from other states to Punjab with many settling here.
Amid apprehensions of demographic changes, Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira and leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, in Jan 2023, had called on the Punjab assembly speaker to seek the introduction of a private member's bill to restrict or ban the purchase of agricultural land by non-Punjabis "in order to protect our identity and demographic balance" on the lines of the Himachal Pradesh Act of 1972.