BHOPAL: Call it the Sudarshan effect, the MP Government too has relaxed the controversial two-child norm that had disqualified a person having more than two children from contesting elections to the local bodies and Panchayats.
The MP Cabinet at its meeting chaired by chief minister Babulal Gaur took the decision on Tuesday to abolish the related provision from the MP Panchayati Raj Act, 2001. During Chief Minister Digvijay Singh’s regime, he had introduced the `revolutionary amendment’ in the Panchayati Raj Act in an effort to help curb population. MP was among the first states to have introduced such a provision. Others included Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
Himchal government withdrew it in April this year and now MP has followed suit. The provision was in force here since January 2001 and now stands withdrawn.
Under this act provision, people with more than two children were barred from contesting elections to various panchayat posts, civic bodies, mandis and cooperatives in Madhya Pradesh.
But this brought the Panchayati representatives, especially women, under pressure as they said they had little choice or say in the number of children they have.
There were instances in various parts of MP (and other states) that a woman sarpanch had to hide her third child or send him/her to far away relatives in order to stay in office.
Panchayat Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the provision was bad in law as it discriminated between one set of politicians and the other (MPs and MLAs) and also on gender lines.
Chief Minister Babulal Gaur had already disapproved the idea and during the last National Population Conference in Delhi he had announced that his government would roll back the provision. A senior official in the panchayat department said the Government of India had also pointed out some anomalies in the rules that restricted people from contesting polls.
Interestingly, during the time it was in vogue, the provision attracted a number of litigations and the State Election Commission was flooded with complaints against the parents with three or more progenies.
Famous demographer Ashish Bose has recently said that the Government’s policies are all wrong and the two-child policy has resulted in increasing female foeticide.
