1. SINGAPORE POPULATION

2. STOP AT TWO/TWO IS ENOUGH

3. STOP AT TWO What made this policy necessary? Post war baby boom People were confident of a brighter future Population grew from 1.02 million in 1950 to 1.64 million in 1960

4. STOP AT TWO Thus, Singapore implemented the “Two is enough” policy. Abortion and sterilisation were legalised in 1970 Women urged to go for sterilisation after second child

5. STOP AT TWO—DISINCENTIVES Hospitals charged incrementally higher fees for each additional child Large families penalised in housing assignments Third child and above given lower priority in education

6. GENERAL SUCCESS RATE By 1975, number of children born per woman had reached ideal reproduction rate of 2.1 But by 1980, the number of children born per woman had dropped to 1.82

7. INTERVIEW REGARDING STOP AT TWO POLICY FAMILY TREE INTERVIEW

8. FAMILY TREE Maternal Grandparents AuntUncleMother Paternal Grandparents Eldest auntEldest UncleSecond UncleThird UncleFather Youngest aunt

9. FAMILY TREE In addition, on the maternal side, I have 2 grandaunts, and each have three children

10. INTERVIEW WITH MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER On my maternal grandparents side, my grandmother had said that she only wanted 2 children, even before the government came up with the policy. But she had a third child, my mother. However, she was not penalised in any manner. But she did not like the government’s disincentives— she felt the government was not being fair by fining couples for having children.

11. INTERVIEW WITH MATERNAL GRANDFATHER My grandfather felt that the government had misjudged Singapore’s ability to support a large population, and it was because of their policy that population decline started

12. INTERVIEW WITH GRANDAUNT My second grand-aunt had a first-hand experience of the penalties. At that time the additional delivery costs for the third child had not kicked in, but the third child had a very hard time getting into his siblings’ primary school. She recounts, “I had to call up the school and beg for the position. A few days before the start of the school year, they agreed. I couldn’t even buy his school uniform on time!”

13. INTERVIEW WITH PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS My grandparents recall that when their sixth child was born, they were charged with an additional $50 for delivery charges. This youngest child also had problems enrolling into school. Luckily, an Indian teacher said that the policy should not apply for my grandparents, as they they did not know of this when the baby was born. Added with the fact that my father was in the primary school, my youngest aunt was finally enrolled into the school.

14. INTERVIEW WITH PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS Despite this, my grandfather says that “you cannot say that the policy is wrong or right”. “At that time the government was short of resources, especially houses,” he said. “So the policy was appropriate for that time, but now, things have changed, so a new policy had to be made”. He commented that the only wrong thing the government did was to reverse the policy at a stage too late.

15. THREE OR MORE IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT

16. WHY WAS IT IMPLEMENTED? The government saw that there was now a population decline This was in part a result of the government’s birth control policies But also, with the advance of Singapore’s economy, people became more educated, and had an economic way of thinking.

17. WHY WAS IT IMPLEMENTED? People thus began calculating the cons of having children. Raising children Would take a lot of effort Requires a lot of money May affect career There was a preference for small family size as cost of living increased. This, however, would cause devastating consequences in the long run

18. THREE OR MORE—INCENTIVES Government made changes to population policy in 1987 Income tax relief to be given for 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd and 4 th child. Relief of $2000 per child for first 3 children Relief of $2000 for the fourth child born on or after 1 January 1988 Rebate of $20,000 for third child born on or after 1 January 1987 Starting 1990, a tax rebate of $20,000 was given to mothers who had their second child before the age of 28

19. THREE OR MORE—INCENTIVES A monthly subsidy given to working mothers for each of the first four children attending approved childcare centers. Families with 3 or more children given priority to buy a bigger government flat. Medisave can be used for hospital and delivery charges for 1 st, 2 nd and 3 rd child.

20. THREE OR MORE—DISINCENTIVES "Abortions of convenience" discouraged, with compulsory abortion counselling Women undergoing sterilisation with less than three children would receive compulsory counselling

21. INTERVIEWS REGARDING THREE OR MORE POLICY FAMILY TREE OF MATERNAL RELATIVES FAMILY TREE OF PATERNAL RELATIVES INTERVIEWS

22. FAMILY TREE—MATERNAL RELATIVES Aunt Eldest Son Second son Youngest son Uncle Eldest daughter Youngest daughter Mother Me Younger brother Younger sister

23. PATERNAL RELATIVES Paternal relativesNo. of children Eldest Aunt4 sons Eldest Uncle2 daughters Second Uncle1 daughter, 1 son Third Uncle1 daughter Dad2 sons, 1 daughter Youngest daughter1 daughter, 1 son

24. INTERVIEW WITH GRANDAUNT My first grand-aunt found the policy change very unreasonable. She told me, “You are so used to speaking English, if the government told you to switch your primary language to Chinese how would you feel? Of course its unfair! It is exactly the same with the government changing the policies.”

25. INTERVIEW WITH AUNT My aunt said that she would not raise another child just because of the monetary incentives. “Raising a child takes effort, not just money!” she exclaimed. “Actually I wanted to stop at two (children). The only reason why I tried again was because I wanted a daughter” [her three children are all boys]

26. SUCCESS RATE? As we can see, most people did not find the government’s incentives attractive enough—Not only money was needed to raise a child. If people tried for a third child, it was apparently because they had two children of the same gender, and they wanted one of the other gender. Other couples simply enjoyed children, and they would have children regardless of the “Three or More” policy and its incentives

27. CONCLUSION OBSERVATION DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION MODEL OVERALL CONCLUSION

28. OBSERVATION In general, the Stop At Two policy was effective, lowering the birth rate to 2.1 by 1975. It was too potent, however, and population decline took place partly because of this policy’s overwhelming success.

29. OBSERVATION The “Three or More If You Can Afford It” policy did not see that much of a success. As of now, the ideal replacement rate of 2.1 has not been reached

30. DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION MODEL

31. Stage 1: Pre-industrial Society (High Stationary) Stage 2: Developing Country (Early Expanding) Stage 3: (Late Expanding) Stage 4: Developed Country (Low Stationary) Stage 5: Population aging/decline [speculative]

32. DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION MODEL Singapore, in a matter of 47 years, has already reached Stage 5 of the demographic transition model. Most countries take a considerably longer time to reach this. This is most likely because Singapore has accelerated the economic progress. It is phenomenal that a country could reach such a state of economic progress in such a short time.

33. DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION MODEL This trend, however, is seen in developed countries around the world, too. It shows that the trend of population decline cannot be avoided eventually. However, this trend usually takes a long time to surface. Singapore, with its “Stop at Two” policy, has fast-forwarded this process.

34. CONCLUSION Actually, the “Stop at Two” policy merely accelerated the process of the social trend. It is not completely responsible for population decline. By accelerating economic progress, the government caused the population to become more educated.

35. CONCLUSION In doing so, the government also increased the cost of living, and made people busier. This caused an economic mindset to form in Singaporeans Therefore, Singaporeans feel that a child may be expensive, and take up too much effort.

36. CONCLUSION The Three Or More If You Can Afford It policy was not very successful. But perhaps, it was just targeting the small group of people who wanted to have more children—but were afraid that they did not have the monetary means to see through their child for the next 21 years. The government perhaps knew that their policy could not reverse the general trend. But they had to try

37. CONCLUSION So the government helped to defray costs by providing money. Most parents could send their children to kindergarten “free of charge”, such as my mother did, as the money the government provided could be used for this purpose.

38. CONCLUSION In conclusion, the policies did not make much of a difference to the population landscape in Singapore. Rather, it only accelerated a process that would have taken considerably longer to emerge without intervention. With good things come bad things. Singapore chose the path of economic success, but this resulted in an accelerated social trend process.

39. CONCLUSION We cannot say that one specific policy was wrong, because without the Two Is Enough Policy, Singapore may just as well be a third-world country struggling to support all its citizens Obviously, the two is enough policy would be more effective than the three or more policy, as it is easier to stop people from procreating them to get them to procreate.

40. THANK YOU.