Bishop Karikkassery raps Iyer report

PARAVOOR: Kerala Regional Latin Catholic Conference (KRLCC) family commission chairman Bishop Joseph Karikkassery condemned the draft report for Kerala Women’s Code Bill submitted to the State government by the commission headed by Justice V R Krishna Iyer. He termed the report as anti-democratic, anti-secular, denial of fundamental rights and barbaric. The bishop said that the decision on the number of children was the sole right of the parents. There is no justification in restricting the number of children to two. Denying the government aids to those having more than two children is undemocratic. The proposal to enact legal proceedings against the people having more children is barbaric and should be condemned by  sections of society, the  bishop said.The proposal to take action on the religions, social, political and academic organisations which propagate against family planning is against the provision of the Constitution which upholds the right to promote secularism.The commission’s draft report insisting to bar the office-bearers of religious organisations in the proposed commission for formulating the family planning policy is suspicious.