Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that the two-child policy is the only way to eradicate poverty and illiteracy among the state’s Muslim minority. Sarma also claimed that organisations working with the community had welcomed his proposal of adopting good family planning norms. He said that the two factions of the All-Assam Minority Students Union met him twice in the past month and openly welcomed the two-child policy.
Speaking to press in Guwahati yesterday, the Assam CM also said that he would be meeting several Muslim intellectuals in July and hoped that they’ll support the state government’s policies. Sarma said that it’s the only way through which poverty and illiteracy can be eradicated from the Muslim minorities in the state. He informed that around 150 Muslim intellectuals have been invited to meet him on July 4.
Sarma had been working on implementing a two-child policy in the state. Last week, he said that his government will take into account population norms for selecting beneficiaries for government schemes like loan waivers. He had also said that population policy has begun in the state.
Earlier, he had announced that there will be a gradual implementation of a two-child policy in state-run welfare schemes and the NDA government may even bring in new legislation during the next budget session to enforce it.
Sarma had however said that the rule won’t apply to the tea community workers.
Assam currently has a two-child norm along with requirements of minimum educational qualifications and functional sanitary toilets for contesting in panchayat polls as per an amendment in 2018 to the Assam Panchayat Act, 1994.