Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, July 12
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday expressed reservations over enacting legislation to control the birth rate.
Without naming the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, Nitish said a law to control families was no solution.
Talking to media persons after his reintroduced weekly Janata Darbar, Nitish also opposed the idea of uniform civil code. BJP, which is campaigning for birth control laws and Uniform Civil Code, is an alliance partner in the JDU-led government in Bihar and in the Centre too.
Nitish said Bihar model to control birth rate should have been applied. With promotion of education among girls, the fertility rate has come down drastically. When the Bihar government made free education for girls upto matriculation level, the fertility rate was 2 per cent, when it was raised to intermediate stage, it reduced further to 1.6 against the national average of 1.7 per cent.
He claimed with education, women become conscious of their physical and emotional issues and it helped them to control families.
Without naming Lalu Prasad, he said there are some people who have many children. Nitish said the family control through promotion of education among the girls has benefitted families of all communities. He cited the example of China to suggest legislation on family control was no solution and said now, China is also supporting two plus children per family.
Every family, irrespective of community should think of population control. The Bihar model has been successful and now the average family size in the state has reduced to three children .He hoped by 2040,a declining trend in population would come.
Reacting to the recent recommendation of Delhi High Court for uniform Civil Code, Nitish said why focus on article 44 of the directive principles of the Constitution which provides that the state shall endeavour to secure for the citizens uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.
Nitish said why there was no focus on directives contained in article 435 which called for early childhood care and education for all children. He said prohibition should also be adopted as national policy for better care to women and children.
