Term Paper on "Family Planning and the One Child Policy in China"

Term Paper 6 pages (1923 words) Sources: 7 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Child Policy in China. It explores the problems faced by the Chinese due to the implementation of the One-Child policy. It takes a deep look at the origin of the policy, the social and economic outcome of the policy, and the issue of infanticide associated with the One-Child policy.

Origin of the One-Child Policy

Enforcement in Urban and Rural Areas

Social Problems

Infanticide

China is one of the leading countries in the world due to its advances in arts and sciences. It is also one of the largest countries in the world. It faced a lot of problems as there was a lack of development and economic growth due to overpopulation. This was one reason why the Chinese government implemented a One Child policy as a birth control method in 1979. The one-child policy can be accredited to the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping who believed that the economic stability of the country depended on such a policy. This policy proved to be a controversial method to curb the overpopulation of the country. (Greenhalgh, 2003: 165)

Origin of the One-Child Policy

The government of China provided family planning services to its people so that it could help maternal and child health starting from the year 1953. This helped to curb the death rates and helped the growth to grow by 2.8%. The rapid growth was a big strain on the government's resources and did not allow it to meet its goals in helping people. The government started looking at methods to curb the growth rate by including contraceptives and abortion services as well as promoting the cause of late marriages, intervals between births and the concept of small families.

China had a population of around 426 million people at the dawn of the century. The population increased by 900 million in the last fifty years to make it to the grand total of 1.2 billion people currently. China forms around twenty percent of the world's population. The one- child policy was implemented so that the Chinese would be able to prosper as a country. This policy was initially implemented to reduce the famine in China. The government decided to keep the policy as it was beneficial for their economy. There government forced this policy because they believed that China was facing a population crisis. The one child policy was implemented because they believed that this was the most practical way out of it. The one child policy has prevented over 300 million births and has had a huge effect on Chinese life. This policy has also had a bad effect on the fertility rates of the Chinese. The one child policy was conceived so that the population growth would be limited to around 1.2 billion by the year 2000. The government hoped that families would not give birth to second and third children so that the future generations would benefit. They believed that families would be able to make a sacrifice for the future of China. Financial benefits and other benefits were offered to families in order to entice them into having one child. Financial sanctions were placed on families who had additional children as well as placing social pressure and reducing career prospects for government workers. (Hardee 2004: 70)

Enforcement in Urban and Rural Areas

The one child policy has been more successful in urban areas than the rural areas. This policy has not been implemented successfully due to economic and social reforms. Critics of the one child policy complain that this policy discriminates against females.

This method is strictly enforced in urban areas while it is relaxed in certain areas. The Chinese government has allowed rural families to have a second child provided the first child is either disabled or a female. However these measures were not put in place in all the provinces as they varied from place to place. It was very difficult to convince rural families to stop having children. Most of the rural families consisted of peasants who required large families to help them earn a living. These families required a large family who could help them through their old age. The peasants could not rely on their daughters as they would get married and had to rely on their sons. The local authorities of those areas had to resort to strict birth control campaigns by using sterilization and abortions to control the birth rate. The rural people finally made a compromise by agreeing to a level of flexibility with the authorities.

This has been proven with the case that there are some Provinces which are flexible about the number of children they allow in rural areas. One of the provinces, Hubei has been a one son-two child province since 1988. This policy allows a couple to try for a boy if their firstborn is a girl. Then there are provinces such as Guangdong and Yunnan which allow rural couples to have two children regardless of sex. Some of the few rural areas such as the wealthy areas of Jiangsu and Sichuan are strict about their one child policy for rural as well as urban areas. These exceptions were introduced in the rural areas in the mid to late 1980s due to the widespread resistance by people in the rural areas. (Johnson 2004)

These policies were the most effective in urban cities where a majority of married couples chose to have one child. Most of the working members of the family were employed by the state and had to bow under their pressure to have one child. A good example can be followed by looking at the case of Gao, a geography professor at a Chinese university. Gao's life was not in his hands as it was handled by his department head. He had to place all decisions facing his job, vacations, housing, as well as his decision to have a child according to the tenets of the law in his superior's hands. Matters were so extreme that Gao needed to obtain permission from his superior to impregnate his wife. This method allowed the authorities to keep a watchful eye over its citizens by monitoring the birth cycles of its women. This system was known as the dan wei and provided people with health care, housing and employment. It also helped the government to control political and social order as well as an opportunity for them to control its citizen's lives. (Faison, 2004: 39)

The population authorities announced a policy where women with one child were asked to insert an IUD and Couples with more than 2 children had to have one of their partners sterilized. The policy forced Women who got pregnant without official permission to have their pregnancies aborted. (Maclean 2004: 7)

Social Problems

According to repots a lot of male and female reports go unreported or underreported. Most of the unrecorded births are females who are either adopted or abandoned at orphanages. Due to rising costs a lot of families don't want the burden of a second child.

There was a period of time during the 1980s when the Chinese authorities were flexible about birth control during the 80s. The authorities had also placed restrictions on couples in their early 20s from getting married. The one child policy was tightly enforced during the 90s due to the growth of the population. The reason why families do not register the birth of their females is because they fear it will not permit them to have a son. There are a number of people who hide their children from the government but then it has led to a number of problems. This prevented them from receiving medical benefits from the government as they were not registered. These children are known as the black population as they don't exist officially. It's said that these children can not go to school or settle down for a normal life. The authorities permit a man and woman who are both in their second marriage to have another child. Rural couples are allowed to have more than one child provided their first child is a female. Chinese official have estimated that there will be around estimates 30 and 40 million bachelors by the year 2020. This means that the aging society will put more pressure on China's inadequate pensions and healthcare. (Evans 2005: 21) It is said that around 118 baby boys are brought into families for every 100 baby girls. (Fishman 2005: 102)

These changes have remained despite the change in the political and social environment over the last 2 decades. The policy makers felt that the population growth would affect the development of the country. According to experts there are currently more than 20 million males more than females in China. (Fishman 2005: 103)

Infanticide

The One-Child policy was controversial as it promoted infanticide amongst Chinese families. Chinese families looked upon males as the dominant sex as they felt that they needed a boy to carry on their family name. This promoted female infanticide… READ MORE

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