PILs in Supreme Court for strict population control measures

NEW DELHI: Three separate petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to ensure strict population control measures by adopting a two-child policy and reward or punish those who adhere or fail to follow it.

The petitions, filed by advocates Anuj Saxena, Prathvi Raj Chauhan and Priya Sharma, claimed that statistics relating to population growth indicate that by 2022, the population of India is likely to pass the 1.5 billion mark.

The PILs, which are likely to come up for a hearing next week, also said that unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, poor health, pollution and global warming are a few effects of the population explosion that is being experienced in the country.

"Direct the respondents (Centre) to formulate policies with a vision to encourage and/or reward the family who is adhering to two child policy, and punish appropriately, who are in non-compliance of the same," the pleas said.

The PILs also claimed that since India has the youngest workforce in the world and due to this extreme population explosion, the youth are driving towards unemployment.

"The population of India was around 361 million during the census of 1951. It reached over 1.21 billion during the census of 2011," the PILs claimed.

Earlier, on February 12, activist Anupam Bajpai had also moved the apex court alleging that the increase in population was imposing an increasing burden on the limited natural resources of the country and causing continuous degradation.