The rights and wrongs of Baba Ramdev’s demand of No-Voting rights for parents with two plus children!

Greater Noida (24/01/2019) : Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev on Thursday fired a fresh salvo by making a controversial demand of prohibiting those with over two children from taking part in electoral process.

He made this demand in context of ever growing Indian population while blaming it for most problems of the country.

Ramdev, who himself is a celibate said, “Those who have more than 2 children, their voting rights should be taken away and they should not be allowed to contest elections. Don’t let them use government schools, hospitals, and don’t give them government jobs. Population will be controlled automatically.”

While Yoga Guru’s idea of population control may sound logical to many, it has its own drawbacks, which when put together nearly make it impossible to be implemented.

First of all, a blanket ban on these lines will also make large number of those people ineligible who already have more than two kids. The fact that they had more than two children before any such prohibition in place makes them an unwanted victim and challenges the basic tenants of social justice.

Also in a country with as widespread cultural and social beliefs as India it is way too difficult to have the same yardstick for one and all. For instance, India is home to the largest Joint family in the world. The 67-year-old Ziona, who heads the family of 181 members, lives in a four-storeyed mansion with his 39 wives, 94 children and 14 daughter-in-laws and over 40 grandchildren. The belief that this family practices allows polygamy.

Hence it brings us to another question, where a person could marry more than two individuals and in such case how would any such prohibition, if it ever get implemented, would apply to them. Would the law only consider the immediate spouses and children that one has with him or her. Even then, if a person divorces or remarries after fathering or bearing over two children, will he or her become eligible to vote or not?

Nonetheless, this all remains an imaginary situation as of now. Many parliamentarians, social workers and organizations are constantly pressing for a two child policy. Such policy indeed remains the need of a time, however what is required is a just implementation of the same while considering all related implications, effects and practicality.