The Congress, an ally in the Vijay’s TVK-led Tamil Nadu government, disagrees.
“I don’t agree with the government’s policy of encouraging large families. I welcome maternity leave. I think maternity leave should be given to all working mothers. They must be entitled to maternity leave. I also encourage the paternity leave policy. “We must also see if families have the resources to bring up children in an egalitarian manner by giving them all opportunities of education and other resources. Without doing all that I don’t think we should encourage large families. I repeat myself: we should have an efficient, healthy, highly educated population, not a large population for the sake of having a large population. When pointed out if the falling fertility rate in Tamil Nadu was not a concern, the Congress MP was not impressed.
Specifically, it is party MP Karti Chidambaram who disagrees with the state government’s move to encourage large families after the state government announced it is extending the maternity leave from 12 weeks to 365 for women giving birth to their third child .
I don’t think child rearing is the sole responsibility and burden of women alone,” Karti Chidambaram told NDTV. Asked what if other states take their cue from Tamil Nadu, the Congress MP said the question to be asked is if the families have the resources to bring up children by giving them all the opportunities. I welcome maternity leave and that should be extended to both the government and private sector,” he said.
