114 members in the recently-dissolved Lok Sabha had four or more children.
Believe it or not, but India’s efforts at population control seem to have been most bitterly resisted by its politicians. This is probably why one-fifth of members in the Lok Sabha have contributed to significant population growth.
The outgoing Lok Sabha has 114 members, all of whom have four or more children. This group is led by the outspoken Lalu Prasad with 9 children – two sons and seven daughters. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief had always asserted that he went on to have more children to protest against the forced vasectomy undertaken during former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s regime, as part of family planning policies.
With that, Prasad thought he had found a novel way of showing his disapproval. So, when he wanted to oppose the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), that gave police the power to arrest and detain anyone without the permission of a court, Prasad named his eldest daughter after it. Thankfully, leaders today have found other ways of showing opposition!
Unlike Prasad, Ilyas Azmi, the Bahujan Samaj Party member from Uttar Pradesh, wasn’t making a statement by having more children. He was merely reproducing a trend. Interestingly, Uttar Pradesh, that sends the highest number of MPs to Parliament, also has the highest number of MPs with four or more children. This term, there were 18 MP’s from that state who have four or more children. Bihar comes right behind with 12 members while Madhya Pradesh has 10 and Maharashtra has 9, including union minister for minority affairs AR Antulay, who has four children.
Try as they might, successive governments have failed to prevent politicians with too many children from entering Parliament. The 79th Constitutional Amendment Bill, introduced in 1992, that aimed at barring those with more than two children from contesting polls at all levels was shelved in the absence of a consensus. Of course, resistance also stemmed from the feeling that the legislation would discriminate against communities that boast of having more children per family.
Lately, states like Haryana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa are taking action by adopting the two-child norm for panchayat polls. More states are likely to join in. Only time will tell whether the new government takes bigger strides in population control.
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