-Down to Earth The focus must be on safeguarding women and girls’ reproductive health. Smaller families can be achieved by ensuring gender equality, empowering women The law proposed by the Uttar Pradesh Law Commission on July 7, 2021 on two-child policy compels couples to limit their families through a series of incentives and disincentives. There is no evidence, however, that coercive policies can truly reduce fertility. Two-child policies are known to disproportionately impact...

-TheCitizen.in There is no evidence of a population explosion in either India or Uttar Pradesh Women’s groups, health experts and civil society groups have written to the President of India raising concerns and opposing the Draft Uttar Pradesh Population Control Bill 2021. The bill’s main objective is to implement a two-child norm by punishing adults with more than two children, and rewarding those who comply. Following in the steps of BJP-governed Assam, the disincentives...

-The Hindu We need to address inequality, and social and gender discrimination, says Poonam Muttreja, Population Foundation of India In the recent past, States like Uttar Pradesh and Assam, and and Union Territories like Lakshadweep, have proposed to implement a two-child norm as a pre-condition for getting government jobs or to get nominated or elected to Panchayat elections. What has been the impact of such policies so far? Jagriti Chandra interviewed executive...

-The Hindu What we have done so far, and what all remains to be done The global pandemic is marching on. As I had said at the JRD Tata Oration, hosted by the Population Foundation of India on its 50th anniversary, of the lessons I have learned over the last nine or 10 months, the most important one is the significance of investing in public health and primary healthcare. Countries that invested...

-The Hindu Domestic abuse among hurdles faced by them, says report A staggering 90% or 9.2 lakh women in India estimated to require abortion services could not access them between January and June because of the stringent COVID-19 lockdown. They are among the 13 lakh women who couldn’t get any kind of sexual and reproductive health services, many of whom were impeded because of domestic abuse, according to a report launched by Marie...