Can't ignore religion-based population while framing policy: RSS chief at 'Vijaya Dashami' rally

News Network

October 5, 2022

Nagpur, Oct 5: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday said that population control and religion-based population balance is an important subject that can no longer be ignored while framing policy.

Dwelling on the population explosion, he said that in 2000, the Government of India after multi-stakeholder consultations had framed a population policy.

"One key goal was to obtain a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 2.1. Recently, in 2022, the NFHS report, which comes out every five years, has been published. Due to social awareness and constructive co-operative efforts by the central and state governments the TFR has come down below the targeted 2.1 to 2.0. While we are continuously progressing on the front of public awareness and the goals of population control, two more questions are emerging for consideration," Dr Bhagwat said addressing the annual 'Vijaya Dashami' rally in Nagpur.

According to him, social scientists and mental health experts opine that ultra-nuclear families are posing challenges for the all-around development of young girls and boys, families are feeling a sense of insecurity, social tensions, loneliness etc are presenting testing times and a question mark hangs over the central edifice of our society – the 'family system'.

"In the 21st century, the three new countries that have come into existence, East Timor, South Sudan and Kosovo, have been the result of population imbalance in certain territories of Indonesia, Sudan and Serbia. Population imbalances lead to changes in geographical boundaries," he said.

It may, however, be mentioned, that in May, when the BJP-led NDA government released the findings of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS 5), the data showed that the fertility rate of Muslims registered the sharpest ever decline over the past 20 years as compared to that of other religious groups, including Hindus.The fertility rate among Muslims dropped to 2.3 in 2019-20 from a high of 4.4 in 1992-93.

"Alongside the differences in birth rate, conversions by force, lure or greed and infiltration are also big reasons. All these factors have to be mulled over. Population control and religion-based population balance is an important subject that can no longer be ignored," Bhagwat said.

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Hezbollah’s media relations chief killed in Israeli strike on Beirut

News Network

November 17,2024

An Israeli airstrike on the office of Syria’s Baath party in Lebanon’s capital Beirut has killed the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah's Media Relations Officer, Mohammad Afif, reports say.

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli raid struck the Ba'ath party’s building in central Beirut district of Ras Al-Naba'a on Sunday, adding that the strike was an attempt to assassinate the leader of the resistance media front.

According to Baath Secretary-General Ali Hijazi, Afif was having a meeting in the Baath Party headquarters when Israel carried out the attack.

"Afif did not fight with weapons and did not lead a military unit in Hezbollah. Rather, he led a media unit," he said.

Reuters, Sky News, Al Jazeera and a number of Henrew-language media reported that Afif was killed in the Israeli strike.

However, Hezbollah has not yet confirmed Afif’s death or whether he was present at the site or not.

Earlier, the Lebanese Health Ministry said at least one person was killed and three others injured after an Israeli strike targeted a central district in Beirut.

Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television network reported that five people were killed in the attack.

The latest development came after Afif said Hezbollah was behind the Caesarea operation and targeting Netanyahu’s home during a speech at the Ghobeiry area in the southern suburbs of Beirut on October 22.

This was the second assassination attempt on Afif in the last two months, after he survived an attack on the Hezbollah media relations office several weeks ago.

Israel launched a ground assault and massive air campaign against Lebanon in late September after a year of exchanging fire across the Lebanese border in parallel with the Gaza war.

At least 3,287 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the past year, with the vast majority in the past seven weeks. Another 14,222 have been wounded, mostly women and children.

In response to the ongoing aggression, the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has been staging hundreds of retaliatory strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories and the Israeli forces trying to advance on southern Lebanese areas.

The movement has vowed to sustain its strikes until the regime ends the escalation.

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