A policy passed by the Assam assembly to check state’s growing population has received flak from state’s minority outfits for being ‘against the marginalised’.

Asserting that the limited resources cannot afford the rapid population growth and raising an alarm over the fast changing demography of the State, the Assam legislative assembly has passed a new ‘Population and Women Empowerment Policy of Assam’.

Highlights of the Policy:

• The policy has a strict two-child policy for government servants and elected/nominated representatives of panchayat, municipal and statutory bodies, with stress on women empowerment and awareness.
• The Policy seeks to empower women for making learned choice regarding motherhood as it would lead to better living conditions for the communities.
• The policy has provisions to bar people with more than two children from contesting election for panchayat, municipal and other statutory bodies and committees at the state level.
• The focus is equally on empowering women folk through education, skill development and employment as on awareness on population control measures. 
• It contains measures for thrust on women education, legal framework for protection of women’s rights and special schemes for widows/single women/divorcees, especially belonging to economically and socially backward sections and Muslime women divorcees (triple talaq). 
• It also moots reservation of 50 per cent government jobs for women and adequate representation of women in elected bodies from village level onwards. 
• It has been proposed to include education on reproductive health and sex in textbooks from class VII onwards. 
• Further, it has been proposed to ensure free distribution of quality and uninterrupted family planning supplies in all areas of the state and enhancing financial packages for undergoing family planning procedures. 

Source:Economic TImes