It goes without saying that the population of India is increasing very rapidly which is a cause of grave concern for all of us especially those who are Indians. It is a no-brainer that there are so many disadvantages of population increase like the resources shrink, jobs shrink, living space shrink, water shrinks and what not! So there can be no two views that all possible steps must be taken to control population because if it is not controlled even now then not only are we going to overtake China as the world's most populous country by 2027 as a UN report said in 2019 but shall also suffer in innumerable ways which our nation can certainly ill afford at this juncture.

It cannot be lightly dismissed that India is expected to add nearly 273 million people to its population between now and 2050. We also have to concede that with Chinese birth fertility rate expected to drop in the coming years, demographers have predicted that India with its much higher fertility rate will overtake China as the world's most populated country by 2023 or 2024. China's state run Global Times daily quoted Chinese demographers as saying that India's population may overtake China's well before 2027. How can all this be lightly dismissed?

There can be no gainsaying the irrefutable fact that increasing population is the biggest hurdle to development and we cannot take it just lying down. It is the bounden duty of our policymakers and lawmakers to ensure that population is at least controlled to some extent and all steps must be taken now to ensure the same. If population is not controlled even now then certainly our country can never become hunger free or poverty free or free from other such problems as the population rise is the root cause of all such problems with which our nation is seriously grappling also! So, it merits no reiteration that population control has to be on the top priority of the government both in the Centre and in the States also. It cannot be kept on the backburner any longer now!

As we all know, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehruji took the single biggest and the most commendable step of controlling the population of Hindus by restricting Hindus to just one marriage. Prior to Pandit Nehruji's government framing "The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955", Hindus both men and women could marry as many as they wanted and there was just no limit on either men or women. Lord Krishna had 16,108 wives as was reported in "The Times of India" newspaper in 2018. Similarly Ashoka also had thousands of wives and so was the case with not just kings but even among the common man and women. There was just no limit and both men and women had the liberty even during British rule to marry as many as they wanted. But Pandit Nehruji brought down both Hindu men and women to just one which is the most commendable step since independence ever taken by any PM for which Hindus must always be grateful to Pandit Nehruji! This alone explains why I always refer to Pandit Nehruji as the "Real Reformer of Hindus" but Pandit Nehruji didn't touch Muslims as the country then was reeling fresh from the partition wounds and Nehruji didn't want to do anything that would create insecurity among Muslims in any manner! But what about the other PM who ruled after Nehruji till PM Narendra Damodardas Modi who is ruling since last more than 7 years?

But my best friend Sageer Khan differed with me on this. He was strongly critical of Pandit Nehruji's decision to impose monogamy on Hindus alone. He said in 1995 that:
What is UN? It is ruled by just US and UK. France, China and Russia are just servants of US and UK and China got permanent membership because of US and UK. Who created India and got it partitioned in 1947 on the basis of religion? It is again UN ruled by US and UK. UN loves Pakistan and hates India. So never get surprised that why Taliban aided, abetted and armed by Pakistan have taken over Afghanistan and UN watching with smile on face! Hindus, Shia Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Muslims who migrated to Pakistan called Mohajjirs are raped, insulted, punished and then killed! Yet UN is proud always of Pakistan as it is the brain child of US and UK who rule UN and who want to crush India as patriotic Indians especially Hindus in large numbers forced Britishers to leave India. It was UK who did not forget its defeat and so again advised Nehru our first PM to disregard the advice of Dr BR Ambedkar who favoured retention of polygamy in his Hindu Code Bill 1951 and he did accordingly by abolishing polygamy and polyandry among Hindus and also heeded to UK's decision to not abolish polygamy among Muslims so that slowly Muslims become majority and Hindus become minority and India never gets stability and they could again come back to rule India. Why monogamy imposed only on Hindus alone? Muslims enjoy maximum liberty in India all over the world and it is Muslims who can still indulge in polygamy even though Nehru abolished it among Hindus in 1955. This is most unfair and must be strongly condemned. Why Hindus are forced to become Muslims to marry more than once? Polygamy should have been abolished for both or for none but Nehru very wrongly imposed monogamy only on Hindus which is most disgraceful and cannot be ever justified. Similarly why Muslims fight with Hindus in Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura which have been Hindu worshipping sites since ages. Should Ram temple be built in Mecca, Medina or in Ayodhya? Muslims should never fight over Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura which since thousands of years have been Hindus sites of pilgrimages just like Mecca and Medina are for Muslims. Muslims should be treated on par with Hindus and polygamy should be abolished among us also. This will greatly help in controlling the population also in our country. When Hindus can be brought down to one both male and female then why can't Muslim males be also not brought down to one and Muslim females are already one as they unlike men cannot marry more than one? Centre and our law makers must give it a serious thought!"

For far too long this most pressing issue of uniform civil code has been hanging fire and our law makers have just callously preferred to always look the other way around on it. Why is it that film actor Dharmender had to become Muslim to marry a second time? Why is it that the son of former Chief Minister of Haryana – Bhajan Lal named Chander Mohan also had to change his name to Chander Mohammed and so also Anuradha Bali had to assume a Muslim name Fizza and convert to Islam just to marry each other as Chander was already married and in Hindu religion one cannot marry than one? There are millions of such cases where the conversion is purely on the temptation to marry more than one women! Why can't this sham end once and for all? Why can't law be same for one and all? Will it not help control population also if monogamy is imposed on one and all?

To put it mildly: When Hindus can be made to shun polygamy and polyandry in 1955 then why can't the same be done among Muslim men in 2021? My best friend Sageer Khan also always wanted Muslims to abolish polygamy as it is a bad practice and cannot be ever condoned! Sageer Khan also used to often ask: "Why Centre trembles to do anything on this score? Why can't monogamy be imposed equally on people of all religion alike? It has become a fashion to marry more than one. This is the root cause of increase in population in India." Centre must seriously ponder on it.

If Centre takes decisive action and after 75 years of independence summons the courage to abolish polygamy among people of all religions just like Pandit Nehruji summoned to do the same for Hindus in 1955 not just among men but also among women that is abolishing both polygamy and polyandry then population can be controlled to a great extent! But what an unbeatable irony that in last 75 years of independence no PM nor any Supreme Court Judge has gathered the guts, gall and gumption to call a spade a spade and abolish polygamy among people of all religion as my best friend Sageer Khan always advocated also!

Of course, it goes without saying that using force to control population can never be feasible nor advisable! It would only worsen the situation further! We all saw how late Sanjay Gandhi who during Emergency in 1975-77 had thought that he could control population by using forcible methods of sterilisation floundered as he enjoyed unbridled powers and Congress party also lost power as people certainly didn't approve of it in any way. It must be underscored that Centre as also the States must now launch more awareness campaign to ensure that the people themselves become more aware of the dangerous consequences of over population and should work most actively in this direction!

In addition, Centre and States must give more and more concessions to those families where the children are just one or two. This can certainly go a long way in motivating others to follow suit! But both Centre and States ought to be more proactive on it as population explosion is the most serious problem confronting India since last many years! It merits no reiteration that a dormant snail like approach would only serve in further exacerbating this problem further which our country can ill afford at this juncture! So now the ball is clearly in the court of the government!

It must be strictly ensured that child marriages does not take place to achieve fertility decline and this holds true especially in villages and remote areas where we keep hearing increasing incidents of child marriages taking place even now! There has to be zero tolerance on child marriages as it is because of child marriages that a women has many children and that too very early in her life! If child marriage is seriously and strictly checked it will ensure that population is also checked to a great extent.

Not just this, the marriage age must also be increased to 25 for both men and women. This can go a long way in ensuring that both men and women attain maturity when they marry and in their early youth don't indulge in the mistake of having many children. This can prove to be a big leap in the direction to control population to a great extent!

It also must be mentioned here that serious, sincere and steady counselling must be done of all the parents the moment they give birth to one child irrespective of whether it is male or female to not produce more children. When parents have two children then they must be shown the copies of the laws of such states like UP, Assam and Rajasthan among others where having more than 2 children carries lots of disadvantages and bars one from several benefits! On the contrary, those who have just one child can get several benefits like preference in admission in all educational institutions and preference to single child in government jobs as we see in case of UP's population draft bill also!

It cannot be overemphasized that parents must be also made more aware about the preference that is given to a single child in getting free health care facility and insurance coverage also till he attains the age of twenty years as we again see in the case of UP's draft population bill which is also welcome! This will certainly propel parents to not have more than one children! Also, when parents will be barred from getting many benefits and from either contesting elections or holding any public post or getting other similar benefits this also can prove to be a big checker in population increase but apart from just creating strict laws what matters most is their implementation in totality and on one and all!

In conclusion, it is high time and now polygamy should be completely abolished in India just like Pandit Nehruji abolished it among Hindus in 1955! But the moot question certainly is: Can any PM ever dare to do what Pandit Nehruji did not do? Impose monogamy on one and all and not just Hindus alone as he did in 1955!

Sanjeev Sirohi, Advocate,
s/o Col BPS Sirohi, A 82, Defence Enclave,
Sardhana Road, Kankerkhera, Meerut – 250001, Uttar Pradesh