Justice Krishna Iyer report draws wide criticism

Wednesday, September 28, 2011: The recommendations of Justice VR Krishna Iyer headed Commission on Rights and Welfare of Women and Child for promoting a two-child norm with cash incentives in the draft of Kerala Women’s Code Bill drew wide criticism from a cross section of the society.

The two-child norm proposed by the commission was ‘inhuman’ and the government should reject the recommendations, which
‘violates’ individual liberty and fundamental rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) Kerala unit President Panakkad Hyderali Shihab Thangal said in a statement at Malappuram district.

The birth control recommended in the report in the name of controlling the population would encourage female foeticide, he said.

The Constitution has given people the right to follow any religion and propagate it. Without considering religious beliefs and god, laws cannot be formed, he said. ‘At a time when we take credit in our human resources, such recommendations does not befit to a developing country’, he said.

The two-child norm proposal was an outdated concept tested and rejected by even by European countries, Jamaat-e-islami Hind, a Muslim organisation, said.

‘The strength of a nation lay in its human resources and the recommendations to punish couples having more than two children was unrealistic’, they said.

Anweshi Women’s Counselling Centre, an NGO here, said imposing restriction in the number of children by the state could not be tolerated.

‘We strongly oppose such a regulation. It is the right of the women to decide how many children they need and the state could not interfere into’, K Ajitha, President, of the centre, said.

There was need protest the tendency to impose family planning law in a democratic country, she said. Organisations including ‘Ithihadu Shubbanil Mujahideen’ and ‘Sunni Yuvajana Sangham’ had also opposed the proposal.

The commission report, submitted to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy last week, has recommended a two child norm with cash
incentives of Rs 50,000 for women from BPL category who marry after the age of 19 and have their first child only after they
attain 20 years.

It said that ‘within the scope of a lawful wedlock, solemnised after the date of commencement of this Code, each unit of husband and wife shall limit its children to two for entitlement to the advantages the State grants to the members of a family.’

Adoption of family planning and birth control as secular policy of Population Regulation of the state is necessary to check unhealthy,uneconomic and abnormal increase in population and for sustaining harmony and happiness among all communities, the commission, appointed by the government said.