Do you have any siblings?? How many? Are they older or younger? Are they male or female?

CHINA – The one child policy Aim: To know what China’s one child policy is and how it has affected the population growth. To analyse the social impacts of the policy and whether it is a good method to deal with rapid population growth.

CONTEXT The People’s Republic of China was formed in At the time, its population was 550 million. People were encouraged to have children as they believed this gave them power, and the population more than doubled to 1.13 billion by The problem then was how to feed all these people !

China has a quarter of the world’s population, but only: 7% of the earth’s land surface 5% of fossil fuels A large part of China is unusable due to mountains, deserts and forests. There was a POPULATION- RESOURCE imbalance.

The PRO-NATALIST approach continued until the 1970’s. It was calculated that the OPTIMUM population for China was 700 million. The demographer Liu Zeng suggested this would take 100 years to be achieved. Even with only 2 children per couple, this would still involve many millions of extra births, because of the huge POPULATION BASE, which would lead to 1.4 billion by There will be problems feeding this number of people. This was a good example of the importance of education. Poorly educated women tended to have an average of 6 children in the 1970’s, educated women had an average of 2.1

An effort to slow down the rate of births was started in the 1970’s. The Government used the slogan: WAN XI SHAO: meaning ‘Later, Longer, Fewer’ This meant: later marriages, longer gaps between children and fewer children. People were encouraged to limit themselves to 2 children. By the end of the 70’s, use of contraception had increased and the fertility rate had halved. People had to wait until they were 25 (for men) or 23 (for women) before they could marry, for which they had to apply for permission. Because the country had a Communist leadership this meant that the rights of individuals were sometimes overlooked.

China’s Communist leaders wanted to stop growth altogether, so that the population was reduced to a sustainable size. In the 70’s there was Overpopulation. The ‘One Child’ Policy was introduced on 1 st January The policy had a series of ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ sections: Age limits and certificates reducing marriages Free birth control / family planning advice Cash bonuses, improved housing and free education / medical care if couples limited themselves to 1 child Anyone having more than 1 child would lose all these benefits and also face financial penalties

The policy: Statement from the government It is absolutely imperative that we all support the One Child Policy in our country. If we don't, our people will go hungry. Do you think we want our people to be a burden to the rest of the world? It is our duty to have only one child. I thank you if you can understand this. Policy incentives salary bonus (urban) bigger land allocation (rural) extended maternity leave paid medical and hospital expenses priority access to housing, employment and schooling for the child Disobeying the policy withdrawal of family allowance and medical benefits fines (even against everyone in the village or town) demotion or discharge from a government job Exceptions to the rule membership of a minority ethnic group (can be allowed two or even more children) having a first child with a disability that is likely to result in inability to work pregnancy after adopting a child risk of 'losing the family line' without a second child (the first child being a girl) rural families with 'real difficulties' (all children so far being girls)

The Policy Newlyweds are told that if they have certain medical conditions -- from schizophrenia to colon polyps to congenital hearing loss -- they are forbidden to have children. It is not an all-encompassing rule because it has always been restricted to ethnic Han Chinese living in urban areas. Citizens living in rural areas and minorities living in China are not subject to the law. However, the rule has been estimated to have reduced population growth in the country of 1.3 billion by as much as 300 million people over its first twenty years. Statistically, China's total fertility rate (the number of births per woman) is 1.7, much higher than slowly-declining Germany at 1.4 but lower than the U.S. at 2.1 (2.1 births per woman is the replacement level of fertility, representing a stable population, exclusive of migration).

At first the policy looked to be succeeding, but opposition grew, especially in rural areas. It was important to ensure that families had sons: these are more respected in the countryside, and continue the family name. Daughters go to live with their husband’s family, so only sons can look after their parents. Sons can also work better in the fields, and are stronger. (Please note this is not my personal opinion….) The birth of a son is an occasion for celebration, with cakes and fireworks. Baby girls are colloquially called ‘maggots in the rice”.

In the early years, the policy was severely applied. Financial penalties were applied Women pregnant for 2 nd or subsequent time were often coerced into having abortions ‘Granny police’ were recruited in settlements to spy on people in their communities who might be trying to keep a pregnancy secret Contraception and family planning devices were pushed on people The policy had to be modified in rural areas, although due to traditional preference for sons

Real stories: A 29-year-old Communist Party member and hospital administrator from southern China, who spoke on condition that she be identified only by her surname, Zhang, said that less than two years ago family planning officials at her work site stripped her of her job, stopped her pay checks and held her down for a medical exam to check her fetus' age when they asserted that she had become pregnant before obtaining her permit to have her one and only child. In 1997, only 39 percent of women who underwent sterilisation had counselling before surgery, according to the Family Planning Commission. The vast majority of Chinese women still have an IUD inserted after the birth of a first child and are sterilized after the second, although in the cities that is changing. Qu, a farmer in rural Hebei Province who spoke on condition he be identified only by his surname. He said he was detained for a week by the public-security bureau two years ago after his son had an unapproved second child. This rule has caused a disdain for female infants; abortion, neglect, abandonment, and even infanticide have been known to occur to female infants.

Problems with the policy The result of such Draconian family planning has resulted in the disparate ratio of 114 males for every 100 females among babies from birth through children four years of age. Normally, 105 males are naturally born for every 100 females

Change for the better In a small but rapidly increasing number of counties, officials say they have eliminated the onerous system of permits for pregnancy and quotas stipulating how many children can be born in a year, giving women far greater choice in deciding when to have a child and somewhat more leeway in deciding how many children to have. Now that millions of sibling-less people in China are now young adults in or nearing their child-bearing years, a special provision allows millions of couples to have two children legally. If a couple is composed of two people without siblings, then they may have two children of their own, thus preventing too dramatic of a population decrease.

Activities: 1.Explain what China’s one child policy is. 2.Draw a table in you books on one side list all the advantages of the policy and on the other side put all the disadvantages. 3.Explain your own feelings about the policy. Do you agree / disagree with it? What could be done instead? How would you feel if that happened in this country?