On World Population Day, 2021 Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced the Uttar Pradesh  Population Draft Bill 2021.  The idea behind this bill is to bring down the fertility rate to 2.1 by 2026 and 1.9 by 2030. 

The UP Population draft bill has seen criticism from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad who believe that it will adversely affect the demographic balance of the state. The introduction of this bill has sparked debate about the effectiveness of population control using sterilization.

To contextualize the bill and to find out its future implications, Suno India’s Research and Communications Officer, Kunika Balhotra spoke with Dr Abhijit Das. Dr Abhijit is the Director of the Centre for Health and Social Justice, in India and Clinical Assistant Professor of the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.