One Child Policy

[Jess]

what do you think of the One Child Policy in China? is it helping China slow down the population? well I don't really think it is since people still have more than one child (they pay to have more I believe)

[Bougainvillea]

Actually, they have to pay a very large fine if they do.

And people go to the extreme by kidnapping other children, and selling them. It seems to be causing much grief, but necessary when it comes to the exceeding population.

[Jess]

and a downside, when there's an earthquake, many lose their only child

[Bougainvillea]

Especially due to lack of funding towards the public education facilities.

To them, another downside is having a daughter. Because men carry on the family name.

[Obscene Eyedeas]

They lose the child and there is always adoption. They need to curb the population otherwise they will outgrow their existing resources and then everyones in trouble. Also technically your point is flawed.

In 1979, three years after Mao’s death, a one-child policy was introduced to reduce China’s burgeoning population. According to the policy as it was most commonly enforced, a couple was allowed to have one child. If that child turned out be a girl, they were allowed to have a second child. After the second child, they were not allowed to have any more children. In some places though couples were only allowed to have one child regardless of whether it is a boy or a girl. This policy is still in effect today.

Parents who have only one child get a "one-child glory certificate," which entitles them to economic benefits such as an extra month's salary every year until the child is 14. Among the other benefits for one child families are higher wages, interest-free loans, retirement funds, cheap fertilizer, better housing, better health care, and priority in school enrollment. Women who delay marriage until after they are 25 receive benefits such as an extended maternity leave when they finally get pregnant. These privileges are taken away if the couple decides to have an extra child. Promises for new housing often are not kept because of housing shortages.

The one-child program theoretically is voluntary, but the government imposes punishments and heavy fines on people who don't follow the rules. Parents with extra children can be fined, depending on the region, from $370 to $12,800 (many times the average annual income for many ordinary Chinese). If the fine is not paid sometimes the couples land is taken away, their house is destroyed, they lose their jobs or the child is not allowed to attend school.

And People Allowed to Have Additional Children in China

In 17 provinces, rural couples are allowed to have a second child if their first is a girl. In the wealthy southern provinces of Guangdong and Hainan, rural couples are allowed two children regardless of the sex of the first. Minority groups such as Tibetans, Miao and Mongols are generally permitted to have three children if their first two are girls.

Urban couples, who are generally satisfied with small families, are generally restricted to one child. Officials softened the one child policy in rural area where children are needed in the fields and infanticide appears widespread as a result of the preference for boys.

In the Yunnan, where many minorities live, the birth rate was 17 per 1,000 residents, compared to four per 1,000 in Shanghai and five Beijing, and 12 for the country as a whole. So many children are being born in Yunnan that the government is offering cash for school tuition and higher pensions to those who stick with the one child policy.

Parents of a child certified by a doctor as handicapped and couples with both members from single-child homes are also allowed to have an additional child. As children of single-child grow up they will be allowed to have more children.

Urban parents are permitted to have two children if the husband and wife were only children.The number of marriages made up of only children is increasing but many are not taking up the option of having a second child. One Beijing couple with a two-year-old son told the Times of London, “It cost more than 35,000 yuan ($5,125) a year just to leave our baby in a kindergarten. Why spend this amount of money on a second?”

Two-Child Policy?

By the mid 2000s, most couples were eligible to have two children, either because they lived in rural areas or were offspring from single-child homes. There was discussion of moving towards a two-child policy, seen by many as a sign that the Chinese were worrying more about the consequences of too few births than too many births.

There were concerns that Chinese parents had become happy with the one-child policy and didn’t want to have extra children. A survey in Shanghai in 2004, found that 80 percent of the young people interviewed preferred to have just one child and 5 percent didn’t want any children at all. A 30-year-old editor told the Los Angeles Times, that she didn’t want to have any children because wanted to focus on her career and enjoy her free time. “Of course I may feel lonely when I’m old and be envious of people with children. But I will have earned much more happiness when I was young.”

So there you go. The couples dont want more children and it has helped many financially to only have one child

[ryker]

Thank you Archangel. The article is very interesting for reading.

[Giles]

I don't think there's really any question of if it is slowing the population. It's fairly obvious that it is.. :)

[Antares]

Can you please source that article please?


And I think the policy is fine. It makes sense and I admire their government for doing things that would help them in the future.
Keeping in mind that the 1 child policy is mostly in the cities, and the number of children grows as you get out of the city, I think it is effective. They have seen a slower population growth which was the point. Also, they just fine you heavily, its not like they abduct the child or anything.

I think the policy is fine and it is effective. If people don't like it, then they can move out of the city or out of the country.

[Camazotz]

Can you please source that article please?


And I think the policy is fine. It makes sense and I admire their government for doing things that would help them in the future.
Keeping in mind that the 1 child policy is mostly in the cities, and the number of children grows as you get out of the city, I think it is effective. They have seen a slower population growth which was the point. Also, they just fine you heavily, its not like they abduct the child or anything.

I think the policy is fine and it is effective. If people don't like it, then they can move out of the city or out of the country.

http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=128&catid=4&subcatid=15

I am indifferent to the matter. The over-population has to be solved somehow, so I don't have any better ideas.

[Jess]

guess you guys are right *nods*

[Obscene Eyedeas]

camazotz posted the link to the article i used john

[Antares]

Yep I see, thanks.

Maybe we should have a policy...no crazies having more than 10 kids :P

[Awesome]

China has many odd rules. I would not want to live there.

[Sage]

I think the one-child policy is good in theory but an undesirable consequence of having it is that excess children are often abandoned and left to die on street corners.


Maybe we should have a policy...no crazies having more than 10 kids :P
I would prefer not letting crazy people have any kids, but of course, I can't rely on the government to legislate what constitutes 'too crazy to raise children'.

China has many odd rules. I would not want to live there.
That has nothing to do with the topic at hand.