Friday, October 30, 2015: Recognizing the threat of an aging population and the lack of labor force in the coming decade, China’s Communist Party’s leadership this Thursday, and eased restrictions on its ‘One Child’ policy. The announcement came after a Communist Party meeting.
The fear of rapidly increasing older demographic in the country and the gender imbalance that has led to number of social problems including marriages has led the Chinese government to ease on the one-child policy. Rural population prefers the mother bearing a son which has even led to the use of infanticides to ensure a male child which has eventually resulted in a gender disparity in the country. However, the most important reason for the new rule is the lack of younger workforce that has been affecting the economy severely for the last two years.
Although the net growth rate in the third quarter of this fiscal year in China was 6.5 percent compared to the same period the previous year, which is quite promising compared to competitive economies of the world, it is the lowest compared to China’s own since the 2009 global recession. China has become one of the world’s most prominent economies since surviving the 2009 global economy crash.
The growing aged population has not only increased the pressures on the government regarding the lack of eligible work force but the sociological impact of more older people than young ones is one of the imperatives as well. More than 30 percent of the total population in China is over the age of 50 years. It was the same reason that led to the Chinese government to ease on the policy in 2013, allowing exceptions in the one-child policy for families with one child.
Even with the restriction on having more than one child since its enactment in 1979, only 35 percent of total Chinese population has obliged to abide by the rule as of 2007 while the remaining 65 percent still has two or more children.
However, to strictly enforce the one-child policy since its promulgation, the Mandarin government imposed hefty fines on having a second child which even led to forced abortions in some cases.
Since the news broke in China, there is a mixed bag of public reaction. Only a small percentage of the population has welcomed the news. Whereas, most of the public still wants to stick to the single-child norm. Over the course of the last three decades, one-child family system has sunk so deep into the Chinese society it has become a regional custom. Moreover, the economic pressures that the adults face, forces them to reconsider the desire of having a second child.
Even though in 2013 the government eased on the policy, only 12 percent of the eligible population applied for a second child. This shows a clear social trend of having only one child as a choice.
The change in policy, according to some critics comes a decade too late as it will not buy the government enough time to increase its work force or its domestic consumption rate to avoid a substantial dent in the economy.
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