China wants more kids - relaxes two-child policy too

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  China wants more kids - relaxes two-child policy too

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Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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• The story: China will allow each couple to have three children in a major policy overhaul to address the challenges of its ageing population. The decision was taken at the level of President Xi Jinping.
• Steps needed: The government said major steps were needed to address the deepening problem of the ageing population. In October 2015, China replaced its one-child policy with a two-child policy, but some researchers suggested that the change would have only a marginal effect on the greying of the population if no other action were taken.

1. Other measures suggested include postponing the retirement age, and targeting marriage and family values education campaigns at youth. Improvements would be made on child care service, maternity leave and child birth insurance.
2. The decision comes just weeks after the release of a summary of census data pointing to further decline in the number of births in the country.
3. The National Bureau of Statistics said it was compiling and analysing the detailed data and would share the results at a later date. So clearly, the data is pretty scary.

• Data: According to the national census conducted at the end of 2020, China’s overall population rose to 1.412 billion in 2020, from 1.4 billion in 2019. The NBS said Chinese mothers gave birth to 12 million babies in 2020, down from 14.65 million in 2019, marking an 18 per cent decline year on year and continuing the descent to a near six-decade low. 

1. China’s fertility rate was 1.3 children per woman, which is below the replacement level of 2.1 needed for a stable population. The average number of children that a Chinese woman was willing to have in 2020 was 1.8.
2. Many Chinese are clear that the policy change would encourage couples to have more children, given steep real estate prices, long working hours and the intense competition and high prices for education in China.

• Government policy and its repercussions: For over three decades from the 1980s, Beijing enforced the one-child policy in an attempt to control a fast growing population. Due to a cultural preference for boys, the policy led to men outnumbering women by 34.9 million in 2020. The fewer number of women was one of the main reasons for the slump in the birth rate. The number of women of childbearing-age peaked in 2011 and has been falling since.
• Growing old faster: China has been ageing much faster than other low- and middle-income countries, with the proportion of the population aged at least 60 years projected to rise to 28 per cent in 2040, according to the WHO.
• Summary: The threat of over-population is now giving way to the real danger of de-population, across the world.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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