Tax Payers Association of Bharat (TAXAB) is an independent advocacy group of conscious, responsible, law abiding tax payers who wish to actively contribute to the nation-building process. As active contributors to the tax revenues of the nation, taxab has emerged as a powerful voice to reach out to the government with citizenship concerns and demands. Our members pledge their allegiance to the nation by paying their taxes on time.
TAXAB believes that a conscious citizenry ought to be comprised of people who deeply care for the nation and its well-being. This implies that we lead lives in a manner that is congruent and compliant with the country’s goals. Be it environment, natural resources, education, healthcare or infrastructure, we believe, that as responsible citizens, each of us ought to take equal responsibility and ownership in order to progress as a nation.
From independence to now, India’s growth story is no doubt huge and holds merit. But it has also been severely punctuated due to resource constraints. This we believe is further accentuated by a burgeoning population crisis. Manifold increase in number of mouths to feed and lives to sustain has meant acute stress on natural resources, fractured development and a country far from realizing its potential.
The worst part is there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. From 330million at the time of independence, we are now a country with 1.34 billion people. India’s land area has remained the same. The population density has increased threefold. And not to forget, India has seen a steady rise in the number of migrants too. While on one hand, we have a mushrooming middle class who strive hard to increase the productivity of the nation, pay their taxes on time, on the other hand, we have an ever-increasing population which continues to hinder our development prospects. By 2025, it is estimated that we will be the most populous country in the world with nearly 1.45 billion people.
While successive governments have tried to reign in the population and introduced feeble measures, there is no denying that the population crisis continues to be an albatross around this nation’s neck, severely impacting its potential for growth and denying the quality of life every citizen rightfully deserves. How do we address this problem?
One sustainable method is to work on behavior change and impress upon the masses to recognize the looming problem and encourage them to reflect and affect change in their personal lives. The government and various non-government organizations, citizen groups have been successful in initiating measures to this effect (advocacy and awareness about family planning, making available free contraceptives, improving awareness about reproductive health etc.). This has seen partial success over the years, but the impact has varied basis region, community, economic and social level of those involved. Advocates of such measures may argue that there is a steady decline in the fertility rate over the last three decades and that should be seen as a success. But is that good enough we ask?
Another method for population control which has seen some success in countries like China has been a policy regarding family size – which may be affected for a certain pre-defined period to bring the population under check.
TAXAB believes that it is not an either/or situation. Given the mammoth proportion of the problem that stares the nation in its face, it is time to consider both options in the calibrated measure. Time has passed when we would rely on just the behavior change. The problem is too huge and its consequences are potentially devastating.
Against this backdrop, Taxab has taken up the cause of population control and has emerged as a significant advocacy group that not just reaches out to the masses to spread awareness about the problem, but also simultaneously advocates for a strong population control law to introduce a 2 child policy. We believe that the law must provide incentives and disincentives to those who comply thereby encouraging as many citizens to partake and contribute to the nation-building process.
It is time we wake up and take control, for this nation is too precious and we cannot let this gangrene in the garb of a booming population consume us. Join us! Take the population control pledge right now
