The Hindu : SC ruling on two-child norm criticised

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 02, 2003

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SC ruling on two-child norm criticised

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG. 1. The All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) has opposed the Supreme Court judgment on the two-child norm for contesting panchayat elections and demanded that Parliament reassert the basic principle of the Cairo declaration — to which India is a signatory — and the National Population Policy against the use of coercive methods in population control.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, the AIDWA general secretary, Brinda Karat, said that the stamp of approval had been given to laws of some State Governments that are highly discriminatory in nature. She added that the apex court has justified the extension of economic and social inequality to democratic processes, creating an underclass that is deprived of the basic right to participate in elected decision-making bodies.There can be no quarrel with the court's rejection of the plea made by some complainants that since they had the right to four wives, the two-child norm could not be applied to them, Ms. Karat said. However, the reasoning given by the Supreme Court goes far beyond this objectionable plea, since it justifies disincentives to control the family size as being "in the national interest", the statement said, adding that the court's perception of the "national interest" ignores the interests of the majority who make up the nation. "Global experience as also the experience of our own country shows that family size is linked to factors like control of infant mortality, poverty eradication, literacy, access to safe contraception and so on. When these issues are tackled as is the example in Kerala, then couples opt for a smaller family," Ms. Karat pointed out.

Suggesting that the Supreme Court judgment has wider implications that are a throwback to the logic of the Emergency days when coercive methods of sterilisation were justified as being in the "national interest", Ms. Karat said it gave sanction to and opened the gates for cruel strategies employed by many State Governments to deprive poor families who have more than two children, of Government benefits such as ration cards and jobs.

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