ID :
388897
Wed, 11/25/2015 - 08:49
Auther :

China Rethinks Its Family Planning Policy

Beijing Diary By Samantha Tan Bernama's correspondent in Beijing Samantha Tan shares her take on China. BEIJING, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- "How many children do you want?", "Are you planning on having more children?". This is the usual curious questions that I have come across among my married friends in Malaysia. In Malaysia as long as one can afford, one can have as many children as desired. It is common to see couples with more than one child, though the average Malaysian family size has shrunk over the years. However, in China it is a different scenario altogether. It is highly unlikely to see a couple with a bunch of kids due to the one-child policy, part of the family planning policy introduced to control China's population growth. According to Wikipedia, the policy was introduced in 1978 and implemented as a temporary measure in 1980 to keep the population figures in check. The Chinese government found it necessary to limit population numbers to meet the demand for water and other resources as well as to alleviate social, economic and environmental problems. China's population figures in 2015 indicated it has more than 1.4 billion people. While there is no clear picture on how far the one child policy had helped to reduce the population numbers, after more than two decades it has given rise to a graying population and a shrinking youth generation. CHANGING POLICIES Thus some changes were made to the policy in 2007 with only 36 per cent of China's population subjected to a strict one-child policy, while an additional 53 percent were allowed to have a second child if the first child was a girl. However, it was not good enough to reverse the problem. Data from China National Committee on Ageing indicated at present there were 212 million people over 60 years of age in China, about one-third aged 60-65. Furthermore, the over 60-year old group is likely to account for 19.3 per cent of China's population by 2020 and rise to 38.6 per cent in 2050. So the Chinese government recently made further amendments to the policy, now allowing every couple to have two children. However, this is still not going to be easy as the Chinese couples now have their own reasons to have no more than one child. I recently asked a local couple who just got married whether they were happy with the two-child policy. The couple had nothing much to cheer over change in policy. The husband, Chen Li, 31, said whether it is one-child or two-child policy,it made no difference to him because bringing up a child nowadays is not as easy or cheap as people might think. "With things getting expensive nowadays and the long working hours, it is not easy to raise a child. Let's forget the two-child policy. You see I'm 31 years old now and my wife is 32... we consider ourselves lucky if we get our first child," he said. CHINA'S RICH FAMILY LEGACY In traditional Chinese culture, extended families have been a very important component and living together under one roof symbolises harmony, happiness and longevity. It is common to see grandparents be the caretakers of their grandchildren and see children taking care of their parents in old age. Loving and respecting the elderly has always been a valuable Chinese tradition. I myself grew up with my grandparents. We stayed together under one roof initially, but later moved out because of limited space. Nowadays young couples would prefer staying on their own for freedom and privacy. The question is "will the two-child policy help counter the ageing population and the declining youth generation in China?" The rise in the graying population has also prompted China to come up with policies for the elderly over the next five years that include better medical and healthcare services. It also proposed establishing a system of reasonable basic pensions, expand the channels for using social insurance funds and strengthen risk management and improve returns on investments. -- BERNAMA

X