China's One Child Policy

China's One Child Policy

1. Problems

   • If couples had more than 1 child they lost all their privileges, could be sacked from their jobs and receive a heavy fine
     • Fewer people of working age to support the growing number of elderly dependants - in the future China could have an ageing population
   • Use of 'granny police'
     • These women made regular visits to household and kept track of the status of each family and collect information on which women were using contraceptives, the method used and which had become pregnant
   • Young people persuaded to postpone marriage, couples without children are advised to 'wait their turn'
     • Women with unauthorised pregnancies pressured to abort.
     • Those with children are urged to use contraception or undergo sterilisation.
     • the falling birth rate - leading to a rise in the relative number of elderly people

2. Benefits

   • Controlling population has allowed China to develop and reduced strain on public services such as schools and hospitals
   • Standards of living have increased
   • An estimate of 400 million fewer people have been born
   • Incentives
     • Cash bonus
     • Longer maternity leave
     • Free education
     • free medical care
     • better child care
     • preferential housing arrangements

3. Impacts of the policy

   • The birth rate in China has fallen since 1979, and the rate of population growth is now 0.7 per cent.
   • There have been negative impacts too - due to a traditional preference for boys, large numbers of female babies have ended up homeless or in orphanages, and in some cases killed. In 2000, it was reported that 90 per cent of foetuses aborted in China were female.
   • As a result, the gender balance of the Chinese population has become distorted. Today it is thought that men outnumber women by more than 60 million.
   • 400m less births
     • slowed growth of population
       • opposes human rights
   • Started in 1979