BJP, Shiv Sena Seek Stringent Law for Population Control

New Delhi: The BJP and its ally Shiv Sena on Wednesday sought a "stringent law" for population control to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Participating in a discussion on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Lok Sabha, Sanjay Jaiswal (BJP) said the country should bring in a "stringent law" to enforce birth control measures.

"We should call gurus (spiritual leaders) across religions and make them understand (the importance of population control) because this is impacting our population count," Jaiswal said.

Bhavna Gawali (Shiv Sena) said if the country wants to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030 then there is a need for effective birth control measures.

"Just like the government went for the note ban decision, there is a need for such strong steps to control population explosion," Gawali said.

She lamented that India spends only 1.2 per cent of GDP on healthcare, which is much lower than 5 per cent as mandated by the World Health Organisation.

Under the SDG, the government aims to increase healthcare spending to 2.5 per cent of the GDP.

Currently China spends 3 per cent of its GDP on healthcare, while the number is 8.3 per cent in case of USA and 9.6 per cent for Britain, Gawali said.

Supriya Sule (NCP) lauded Health Minister J P Nadda for his efforts in the anti-tobacco drive.

Referring to her father and NCP President Sharad Pawar, Sule said she comes from a family who had a cancer patient, who was hit by the disease because of tobacco, and knows the pain of the family.

Citing the shortage of medicos, the Baramati MP said, the country also has insufficient number of technicians who operate medical equipment.

She asked the Health Minister to toy with the concept of including cervical cancer vaccine under the Indradhanush scheme. Launched in December 2014, Mission Indradhanush aims to immunise pregnant women and children under two years of age against seven diseases.

Sule sought clarity on a new degree called BSc in Health Science.

"When Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister, he scrapped the RMP (Registered Medical Practioner) degree at a time when the country just had 11 medical degrees, so as to not have a parallel degree in medicine.

"What would those with BSc in Health Science degree do? How different would their role be?"

Gaurav Gogoi (Congress) said there is nothing to indicate that health is a priority to the Modi government. He alleged, the government gets concerned over global ranking on 'ease of doing business', but gives little priority to aspects like hunger and health.

Rattan Lal Kataria (BJP) blamed the Congress for the country lagging in the health index.

Ravindra Babu (TDP) said while health is being talked about, it is not just physical aspect, but mental aspect as well.

Jitendra Chaudhary said the spending on health should be increased to 2.5 per cent.