Dispur (Assam) [India], October 24 (HBTV): The Assam government has decided to relax its two-child policy for certain indigenous communities, including tribal groups, tea garden workers, and the Moran and Mottock communities.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Thursday that the government would ease population control policies for these four groups, describing them as micro-communities.
The Chief Minister emphasised that restrictions on their population growth could threaten their existence within the next five decades. He said the decision was made after consulting various social scientists and was aimed at addressing concerns over demographic changes among indigenous groups.
‘We are relaxing two-child norms as far as tribal people, tea garden workers, and the Moran and Mottock communities are concerned, because they are micro-communities. If we restrict their population, they may cease to exist after 50 years. We have taken the opinion of various social scientists and concluded that our strict population control policy needs to be relaxed for these four communities,’ said Sarma.
This marks a shift from the state's 2017 population control policy, which barred individuals with more than two children from applying for government jobs or contesting panchayat elections. The new policy allows members of these exempted groups to have more than two children without facing these restrictions.
The earlier population control policy, implemented through the Assam Public Services Rules of 2019, imposed penalties for having more than two children, including ineligibility for state government employment and disqualification from contesting panchayat elections.
The Assam government has also undertaken measures to safeguard indigenous communities and regulate population growth. In October 2025, the Chief Minister announced that two new pieces of legislation would be introduced to further protect indigenous communities and their land (jati, mati, bheti).
In May 2025, the government began issuing arms licences to indigenous residents in remote and vulnerable areas to help protect them from illegal immigration.
Meanwhile, addressing the media from Lok Sewa Bhawan in Dispur, Sarma said the Assam Cabinet had decided to table the findings of the Tiwari Commission on the 1983 Nellie Massacre in the upcoming session of the Assam Assembly.
In a post on X, the Chief Minister wrote that the Cabinet would place the report before the Assembly to make the facts publicly available.
‘In 1985, the Tiwari Commission submitted its findings to the then government on the 1983 Nellie Massacre. Today, the Assam Cabinet has decided to place this report on the floor of the Assam Assembly so its facts can be made available to the public,’ wrote Sarma.
(ANI)