MPs pitch for political consensus on population stabilisation

Lawmakers under the aegis of "Citizens' Alliance" said there was urgency to discuss population issues in the context of development plans and programmes.

The gathering of MPs included Naveen Jindal, fellow MPs Jagdambika Pal, J D Seelam, Satpal Maharaj, Ashwamedh Devi, Bharat Meghwal and Dilip Pandya among others.

"The last discussion that took place regarding population stabilisation was in 2011 and that was after a period of 30 years. The forceful sterilisation campaign had such a negative impact that Congress became apprehensive to raise the issue again.

"But it is something that we need to openly talk about," Jindal said.

Seelam backed Jindal and said that there was a need for a forum to discuss on population control.

"If we don't talk about small families, the awareness wouldn't grow. We should take it up in the parliament and establish a forum where we discuss just population control and nothing else," he said.

The MPs, as part of Citizens' Alliance's initiative, plan to involve more lawmakers across party lines to present a charter of demands to Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad that includes revision of the national population policy, increase in monitoring support to high focus states among other such steps.