Bhopal, July 21: This one takes the cake: among much multiplying Madhya Pradesh sarpanchs, the onus for making babies lies — no, not on Adam and Eve — but on that hateful little piece of rubber: the condom.

As many as 510 sarpanchs and other elected panchayat-level representatives who have been disqualified for defying the state’s hum do, hamare do norm are virtually on the warpath. They plan to challenge their unseating in court by laying all of the blame on faulty and poor-quality condoms.

The deposed men and women intend to fight their case by citing the example of a Chhattisgarh sarpanch, Lakhni Devi, who regained her crown by convincing a local court that a condom she had procured from the state-run primary health centre was the culprit behind her unwanted pregnancy.

By that logic, the state was as much to blame for her extra child as she and her man were, so she should not be the only one to pay the price, Lakhni Devi of Tidla village had argued.

Some female sarpanchs also plan to blame it on the male prerogative of not taking “No” for an answer — least of all from a wife. Others plan to cite the absence of reproductive health and sexual rights for women.

Last year, one Rama Devi from Harda district had made a representation to then chief minister Digvijay Singh that if she refused to “oblige” her husband, her marital life would be ruined. She had also questioned why an elected representative should be asked to choose between family and professional life.

Aslam Khan, a vice-sarpanch from Sehore district, said he would move court to seek annulment of the “draconian” Section 36 (i) of the Madhya Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act, 2001. Claiming that the provision was both unconstitutional and undemocratic, he asked why panchayat-level members should be the only ones to carry the cross when MPs and MLAs were exempt from the provision.

Despite the rumblings, the two-child whip was today cracked on government officials, too, agency reports from Betul said. Showcause notices were served on 25 employees under Rule 3 (10) of the Madhya Pradesh Civil Service (Conduct) rules, 1950, under an amended provision of which it is a “misconduct” to have more than two children if one of them is born on or after January 26, 2001.

In July 2003, the Supreme Court had upheld the state’s right to enforce the two-child norm for panchayat elections. “Disqualification on the right to contest an election for having more than two living children does not contravene any fundamental right, nor does it cross limits of reasonability,” it had said.

The apex court had then dismissed a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of a provision in the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, which, like Madhya Pradesh enforces the two-child norm on all panchayat-level representatives. It endorsed the law as a “disqualification conceptually devised in the national interest”.

City-based rights activists, however, said such disincentives should be scrapped as the Centre was trying to shift from the target-oriented approach to that of individual choice in family planning.

Reshma Khan, who runs an NGO in Bhopal, said the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo had set a reshaped population agenda. It had advocated a shift from the “demographic imperative language” to one of women’s rights for sexual and reproductive health and also addressed the issue of male responsibility in reproduction and contraception.

The disqualification measure contravened the spirit of the Cairo document to which the Government of India was a signatory, she said.

Another Bhopal-based NGO, the Mahila Chetna Manch, said the two-child norm led to curious practices. In one instance, a woman sarpanch gave up her third child for adoption. In another, a man denied he was the father of a third child, necessitating a DNA test. There are also cases where pregnant wives have been deserted, babies concealed and birth certificates tampered with.

A study has revealed that over 50 per cent of the disqualified people were either illiterate or had primary education only. As much as 75 per cent of the disqualified people belonged to the scheduled castes/tribes, minorities and backward classes.