The Hindu : Right to contest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 11, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Right to contest

Sir, — The editorial, "Right to contest" ( Aug. 8 ) on the Supreme Court judgment assumes that the two-child norm is a part of the National Population Policy. The National Population Policy 2000, in fact, carefully avoids prescribing this with a view to preventing the already adverse sex ratio among children, and the escalating practices of female infanticide and foeticide. The Registrar General for the 2001 Census has been very active in drawing public attention to the long-term implications of the continued decline in the juvenile sex-ratio since 1961 (see Amartya Sen, "Many Faces of Gender Inequality: An Essay", Frontline, Vol. 18, No. 22). Only a few months ago, the NHRC, in response to a joint petition from women's organisations, research groups and health activists, obtained a clear response from the Government of India that "no change in the National Population Policy 2000 was under consideration."

The NHRC thereafter held a broad-based consultation with persons from the States, which introduced the controversial norm in their Panchayati Raj Acts or/and in their State Population Policies. The consultation adopted a declaration which rejected all coercive and exclusion approaches.

Vina Mazumdar &
Lotika Sarkar,

CWDS, New Delhi

The editorial does not assume that the two-child norm is part of the National Population Policy. It argues that in the context of India's attempts to limit its population, "the two-child norm must be part of a broad suasive policy."

Editor-in-Chief

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