Apoorvi Mishra Writes: The One Child Policy of China was implemented by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s which stated that no married couple could have more than one child, failing to do which would result in the displacement of the family from the country or giving away of the second child to the Chinese army or “If couples governed by the one-child policy have more than one child, they are fined “$370 to $12, 800,” an amount many times the average annual income of many Chinese (Hays). If the couple is unable to pay the fine, they may lose their jobs, their land and livestock confiscated, their home destroyed, their children denied the rights and benefits of the state, like education, or their child taken away. The woman can also be forced to be sterilized (Hays). If a family planning official discovers that a woman is having an illegal pregnancy, meaning having a child without a birth permit, he or she can force the woman to have an abortion (Fitzpatrick). The Chinese government has ensured terrible consequences for failing to comply with the one-child policy. There have been more than 400 million abortions since the 1970s,. the One Child Policy of the Chinese since the past 4 decades has now left them with only a population whose major chunk is in their 40s and the ratio of the youth to the middle-aged population [i]is less.”
Driven by fears that an aging population could jeopardize China’s economic ascent, the communist party leadership ended its decades old “one child” policy. China which is now one of the fastest growing economies of the world would have faced a major setback in the next 10 odd years had the one child policy not been revoked. The Chinese population requires youth for its growth because it is only till a certain level that the middle age can contribute to the growth with their manpower, skill set and the similar. The major cause of concern which led to the revocation of this policy was the growing concern over the slowing economic growth. The Chinese governments are providing bonus to the families in order to implement it strongly and wilfully. It is not easy to change a family structure just with the revocation of a law. It takes time and is a long drawn process. But, talking about it in economic language, we could say that ‘people respond to incentives’ as to why the Chinese government is also providing the Chinese Families with incentives.
End Notes