CHINA: China will launch pilot projects in over 20 cities to build a “new-era” marriage and childbearing culture to promote a friendly childbearing environment, in the latest move by authorities to enhance the nation’s falling birth rate.
The projects to encourage women to marry and have children will be launched by China’s Family Planning Association, a national organisation that carries out the government’s population and fertility measures.
The initiatives’ main goals are to encourage marriage, childbirth at the right age, parental responsibility sharing, and the reduction of exorbitant “bride prices” and other archaic practises.
The pilot includes the manufacturing centres of Guangzhou and Handan in the Chinese province of Hebei. The association had already started projects in 20 cities, including Beijing.
Demographer He Yafu said “society needs to guide young people more on the concept of marriage and childbirth.”
The programmes are part of a flurry of initiatives that Chinese regions are launching to encourage individuals to have kids, including tax breaks, housing aid, and free or discounted schooling for having a third child.
China’s strict one-child policy, which was in place from 1980 to 2015, is to blame for many of the demographic issues that have led India to overtake China as the world’s most populated country. Three children are now the maximum allowed.
In order to boost the nation’s fertility rate, political advisers to the government stated in March that single and unmarried women should have access to egg freezing and IVF treatment, among other services. The increasing ageing of China’s population and the country’s first population fall in 60 years alarmed them.
Many women have chosen not to have any or more children due to the high cost of child care and the need to take time off from their jobs, and gender prejudice continues to be a significant hurdle.
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