Union Minister Ramdas Athawale said on Saturday that there should be a one child norm in the country as a measure to control population growth.
“There is a need to control the population for the development of the country, irrespective of whether it is the population of Hindus or Muslims or other religions,” said the Minister of State of Social Justice and Empowerment, whose Republican Party of India is part of the NDA government at the Centre.
Mr. Athawale is a prominent face from the Scheduled Caste community.
“If we adopt one family, one child norm, we would be able to reduce population. For now we have “hum do, hamare do”. Our party’s stand is that to reduce population, there should be a law for 'hum do, hamara ek’ or one family, one child,” the Minister said.
However, he said it was the stand of his party and not that of the government of India.
The Minister also ruled out that there is a higher growth in Muslim population in the country as is being projected by a section of BJP and RSS and also denied any large scale conversions.
“It is not the case that the population of Muslims has risen sharply in all these years,” he added.
“I do not think there is any question of Hindu population declining. Hindus remain Hindu and Muslims remain Muslim. Hardly one or two Hindus or Muslims convert,” he said, adding that “the Constitution gives people the right to do what they like, but nobody can force any person to covert.”
Mr. Athawale was on one day visit to Gujarat.
