Context: Recently, a woman officer from the Maharashtra Prison Department was dismissed from service after an inquiry revealed that she violated the Maharashtra Civil Services (Declaration of Small Family) rules because she suppressed the information from the authorities that she has three children.
Maharashtra’s two-child norm for government employees

• The Maharashtra Civil Services (Declaration of Small Family) Rule of 2005 defines a small family as wife, husband and two children.
• The rule stipulates that a person is not eligible for a job with Maharashtra Government if he or she has more than two children after 2005.
• Maharashtra is one of the few states in the country that have a ‘two children’ policy for appointment in government jobs or even for the elections of some local government bodies.

The other states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Gujarat, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Assam being the latest addition to the list in 2019.

• The rules mandate filing a small family declaration at the time of applying for a government job.
• The definition of child under these rules does not include adopted children.

The rules make the Small Family norm an additional essential requirement for Groups A, B, C, D of Maharashtra government employees.

• A person having more than two children on the date commencement of the rule shall not be disqualified for appointment under these provisions so long as the number of children on the date of such commencement does not increase.
• It provided that one or more than one children are born in a single delivery within an year of the commencement, shall not be considered for the disqualification of the rules.
• The rules also empower the state government to give relaxation in ‘just and reasonable’ manner and mandates recording such reasons.