Health ministry has said that it will not implement a mandatory two-child policy by denying government jobs, subsidies and certain rights to larger families With fertility rates falling across states, India does not need a law enforcing a two-child norm as sought by a petitioner recently in the Supreme Court (SC), experts told IndiaSpend. Such a law could instead have unintended impacts–sex-selective and unsafe abortions and a further skew in India’s sex ratio. Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician and lawyer, had asked for a law that would deny access to government jobs, subsidies, and certain rights to those with more than two children. The denied rights, as per the petition, would include the right to vote, to property and to free shelter. In its response, the Indian government told the apex court that it would not implement a mandatory two-child policy. “The Family Welfare Programme in India is voluntary in nature, which enables couples...