Assam to implement two-child norm for government jobs from 2021

GUWAHATI: Assam government on Tuesday decided that people with more than two children will not be eligible for government jobs after January 1, 2021.
The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting, late on Monday, with an aim to curb population explosion. A communique from chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal's office said those with more than two children would not be considered for government jobs from January 1, 2021.The Cabinet also decided to grant three bigha of farm land to landless indigenous people and another half bigha for construction of house. "The beneficiaries, however, would not be able to sale the land thus acquired for at least 15 years," the communique added.
The Assam government had in 2017 drafted a policy on population growth. At 31,169,272 population according to the 2011 census, the state had registered a 16.93 per cent growth in 10 years. However, the two-child norm decision is not a sudden move, but a logical progression of September 2017 "Population and Women Empowerment Policy of Assam" that advocated the move and also suggested that existing government staff must follow it.
The BJP-led government in Assam that came to power in 2016 initiated the draft population policy on March 27, 2017. Himanta Biswa Sarma had earlier said legislators must adhere to the family planning norms and the state would take up the issue with the central government. "We will propose to the central government to make the two-child norm a yardstick for contesting polls. If a state MLA flouts the family norms, he/she should be disqualified from membership and barred from contesting polls," Sarma said.
Besides this, the state government also proposed a widow pension for the victims of triple talaq. The government will also considered a legislation to raise quota for women in jobs up to 50 per cent.