Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expresses his concern over ‘population imbalance’.

The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath expressed his concern regarding the current population imbalance and suggested it control the increasing population. To keep the religious demography and integrity of India preserved it must be avoided that increase in the population of a single section of the society must be controlled. 

On 11 July 2022, the event of World Population Day, Yogi said that it is important to control the population as India's current population growth rate will soon make India the most populous country in the world crossing China. He also added that it should not be that the population of a section of people increases while the rate of population growth of the indigenous people decreases. There should not be any population imbalance as a result of the population control program.

He said that the current population of Uttar Pradesh is somewhat around 24 crore and it will soon hit the 25-crore mark which is a big challenge, everyone should work on stabilizing this population problem by rising above caste, creed, language, and religion. In the previous year that is in 2021, the Yogi government had proposed a draft for the new population policy. This population policy clearly stated that couples with more than two children are not eligible for any state government jobs and also prohibited them from participating or contesting in panchayat elections. The draft also contained that couples with two children will receive two additional increments, get subsidies while purchasing a house, and even relax in utility bills. The bill also promised to provide couples with one child with more benefits like four additional increments, preference in school admission, and free education till graduation.

This bill of majorly opposed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and various other Saffron outfits. They stated their dissatisfaction with various provisions present in the draft and asked the government to reconsider the bill and make some amendments to it. The Viswa Hindu Parishad also asked the Uttar Pradesh Government to reject the new population policy as it was against the Hindus or create a new bill with the required amendments. Later, the state government then stated that it will make amendments to the draft of the new population policy after receiving objections from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Viswa Hindu Parishad, and other saffron outfits. The state government also hinted that they would remove the clause stating incentives to couples having one child which was previously present within the draft bill.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath while delivering his speech at a function at Lucknow on the commencement of a campaign named “population control fortnight” said that programs to create awareness of population control have been running for the past five decades. On some points, the population is an achievement due to the presence of more skilled manpower but this will remain an achievement only if the society remains healthy and free of any disease. He referred to Uttar Pradesh as the currently most populous state where Anganwadi, ASHA, and the panchayat workers contribute majorly to health and more efforts are needed in this direction. 

Differences in population growth rates of a different religious groups may result in the creation of chaos and anarchy in the country. It should not occur that the rate of population growth of one class is more than more such a thing would create population imbalance so all classes should contribute equally in the efforts to control the population. He purposely stated this to indirectly point to the higher infertility rates of the Muslim community despite them being a minority.

In reply to Yogi Adityanath’s population imbalance speech on July 12, AMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi commented that it was the Muslims who were using the most contraceptives compared to the other classes. If even questioned if Yogi did not consider the Muslims as natives of India. He event pointed out saying that the current total fertility rate in India is 2.3 which is less compared to that of 2016 when it was 2.6 and so demographically India is the best among all countries.

The World Population Prospects 2022 which is a department under the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division reported that the world population will hit the mark of 8 billion on 15 th November 2022. The current projects conducted by United Nations also suggest that the world population will reach 10.4 billion by 2100 which is a big reason to worry about.