Assam exempts SC, ST communities from the two-child norm to get into govt jobs
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Dhemaji (Assam): The Assam cabinet headed by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday abolished the need to adhere to a two-child norm for SC, ST, Adivasi and other traditional forest dweller communities in order to get a government job.
An official communique said that the state cabinet has decided to exempt the communities from the purview of the Assam Public Services (Application of Small Family Norms in Direct Recruitment) Rules, 2019.
The cabinet decision said that the move is to "remove the barrier for SC, ST, Adivasi and other traditional forest dweller communities to get into Government services".
It, however, did not explain what prompted the Assam government to change the population control policy, which was being advocated regularly by Sarma and his colleagues.
On June 19, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had said the Assam government would gradually implement a two-child policy for availing benefits under specific state schemes.
Assam currently has a two-child norm, along with requirements of minimum educational qualifications and functional sanitary toilets, for contesting in gaon panchayat (village council) polls as per an amendment in 2018 to the Assam Panchayat Act, 1994