Recently, three civic candidates were disqualified when they were contesting an election of the municipal corporation of Vadodara and Rajkot and the reason for their disqualification is Gujarat’s two-child policy. And all three candidates were having more than two children.
The Gujarat government amended the Gujarat, local authority Act in 2005 under this act a candidate having more than two children cannot contest local body elections and if the person is found to have a third child he/she will be disqualified by the competent authority.
- The act was implemented in August 2006. Only candidates having three children before the enforcement of this act were eligible to contest an election.
- In the case of twins, the policy says they are counted as one entity each even if more than one child is born in a single delivery.
- The policy does not include an adopted child or children.
- Children from the divorced spouse are also counted as according to the law, any biological surviving child of a candidate is considered as “one entity” even if the marriage to the other parent has been legally dissolved and this has been the case with congress candidate Naran Savseta from Rajkot and an independent candidate Viren Rami from Vadodara both of them were disqualified because they were the biological father of three children even though they were separated from their former spouse respectively.
- The third candidate from Vadodara Deepak Srivastavhas also been disqualified for contesting the election, even though he claimed that he had given his second-born up for adoption (to his father) and legally he the father only two children, but the law clearly states that every biological child is counted as a child born to the candidate regardless of the survival adoption or separation.
- Even biological children who were born alive regardless of the duration of survival are counted as “one entity”.
- The policy also states that even during the tenure of a candidate’s third child is born it will be a ground for disqualification for the post.
Many states in India have similar legislation:-
- The Assam cabinet recently in 2019 decided that those with more than two children will not be eligible for government jobs from 2020.
- In Rajasthan, according to the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act 1994, if a person has more than two children, he will be disqualified from contesting the election as a Panchor member. Later, the government relaxes the two-child norm in the case of a disabled child.
- In Madhya Pradesh, since 2001, the state follows the two-child norm under this rule if the third child was born on or after January 26, 2001; one becomes ineligible for government services; this rule also applies to higher judicial services.
- Telangana and Andhra Pradesh under section 19(3) read with section 156(2)and 184(2) of Telangana Panchayati raj act 1994 a person with more than 2 children after 30 may 1994 Is disqualified from contesting the election.
- In Maharashtra, the Maharashtra Zilla Parishadand Panchayat Samitis Act candidate with more than two children is disqualified in contesting the election, according to the Maharashtra civil services (declaration of the small family) rule 2005 person having more than two children is disqualified from holding a post in the government office and women with more than two children are not allowed to benefit from the public distribution system.
- In Odisha, the Odisha Zila Parishad act bars those individuals with more than two children from contesting Election.
- In Uttarakhand, the government has decided to bring in the two-child policy for the candidate contesting the election for Panchayat but the decision was challenged in the high court by the candidates who were preparing for village Pradhan and gram Panchayat and the court granted them, hence the condition of the two-child norm was applied to only those who contested for the Zila Parishad and block development committee membership.
Some Critics say that these all are the strategy of the people from rich and educated and middle-class people to bard people from the lower section of the society to contest in the election and practice their democratic right and people from the lower section of the society as it is very commonly seen that a people from middle class or upper-middle-class prefer small families as they are very well know that smaller the family easier it is to sustain. But people from the economically and socially backward section see it as, as many people in the family as many hands to work.
The idea behind this legislation is to set an example for the general population to opt for a nuclear family by only allowing the candidate with only not more than two children to contest the election by this way the government will prove that the government is practising what it is preaching, no doubt that the government have taken effective steps to fight population explosion but the government need to take a more drastic step to make India a overly populated county to a happy and healthy populated country.
References:
Gujarat Local Authority Act 2005
Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act 1994
Telangana Panchayati Raj Act 1994
Odisha Zilla Parishad Act
About the author –
This article has been written by Aparna Mishra, 3rd Year B.A.LL.B (Hons.) student at The Maharaja Sayajirao university of Baroda.