Population control plea: The Supreme Court has sought a response from the government. (File)
The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the central government on a petition seeking direction to the Centre to frame rules, regulations, and guidelines to effectively mitigate the problem of overpopulation. A bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy sought a response from the government and tagged the matter along with similar pending pleas.
The petition filed by Dandi Swami Jeetendranand Saraswatee, General Secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti, stated that every year population is increasing but the natural resources are limited and cannot sustain the ever-increasing population.
The state cannot look another way round when there is a drastic increase in unemployment and poverty, limitation of food supply, healthcare facilities etc, added the public interest litigation (PIL).
The PIL also sought a direction to the central government to frame effective rules, regulations, and guidelines in order to protect the fundamental rights of millions of citizens of India due to the problem of overpopulation.
It said that overpopulation is one of the most significant factors giving rise to several serious problems adversely affecting the quality of life of millions of citizens.
The plea also sought a direction to the government to declare the first Sunday of every month as 'Health Day' to spread awareness about overpopulation and for distribution of contraceptive pills, condoms, vaccines, etc. to Economically Backward Class (EWS) and Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, and polio vaccines.
"In the alternative, direct the Law Commission of India to prepare a comprehensive report on population control measures within three months and submit the same to the respondents (government) for due consideration," the plea added.
The petitioner said he has realised "the basic fundamental rights like the Right to live with human dignity, Right to clean air, Right to drinking water, Right to health, Right to shelter, Right to livelihood and Right to education guaranteed under the Constitution will remain elusive unless the respondents give due consideration to the proposals made by the National Commission to review the working of the Constitution (NCRWC) to mitigate the problem of overpopulation."
At present, the population of India is close to 1.39 billion, which is about 17.8% population of the world, but India has only 2% of agricultural land and only 4% drinking water of the world. In the US, 10,000 children are born every day whereas in India 70,000 children are born every day, the plea claimed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)