Why China Has Moved to Three Children Policy From One!

The population is an important factor of any state. The population is a factor that decides the development as well as living standard of a country. China has been a country that has regulated its population on its own.

Although it has been criticized on the grounds of violating the sexual and reproductive freedom of individuals. It has been observed that the Chinese government plays a major role in deciding the policies related to birth in the country.

Initially, when the population was on the rise, the Chinese government came up with an Act that allowed couples to have only one child. This was in effect from 1980 till 2016, which is a long period observing changing Presidents. 

The policy had very difficult punishments which included loss of employment, forced abortions, and heavy fines.

It ended in 2016 when a new policy introducing a two-child policy was implemented. It was because the share of kids in the population was very low and there was a little youth population. This concern further gave rise to a new policy that allowed couples to have three children.

China’s three-child policy came up in May 2021, which left the Chinese population in shock as this is very unusual for a government that never encouraged couples to have children.

Reasons for a Shift

But this shift marks a few important points including the reduced number of youth in the population, youths are an independent population that contributes to the economy of the country by working in tertiary, secondary sectors majorly.

Secondly, the population pyramid depicts that the share of the elderly population is high which means that they being the dependent population does not contribute to the society in terms of economy.

Thirdly, the reduced fertility rate and labor shortage also led to an unbalanced sex ratio because people aborted or killed if it was a girl child. It was difficult for them to accept having a single child and that too a girl.

As per a news agency of China, President Xi Xingping said in a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party that the policy will come with "supportive measures, which will be conducive to improving our country's population structure, fulfilling the country's strategy of actively coping with an aging population and maintaining the advantage, endowment of human resources".

However, the reasons are the same for both the 2016 and 2021 shifts but it is interesting to note how after the 2016 policy change, there was no upsurge in the birth rate. The reason could probably be the high living standards and couples being adapted to the older pattern.

Reactions and reasons: Three-child policy

The policy in 2021 doesn’t seem to be welcomed by Chinese people as already mentioned there is a very high cost of living in China where couples find it difficult to raise two children. Also, this has become a trend where Chinese people have become used to not-so-big families.

They aren’t used to siblings and have almost lived in nuclear families all their lives. Another reason is the fact that young couples do not really want more than two children. Three is a very big number for young couples.

It is also seen that women in China are now more inclined towards the betterment of their personal lives by seeking education and grabbing new opportunities rather than settling with a family of husband and children.

These are additional reasons and the previous reasons have not been sided, they still prevail.

Further decisions and possible impacts

It is being speculated that concerned with the problems in the country the government might lift the cap over birth policy totally. The restrictions are likely to be uplifted. But this might bring with it a new set of problems.

It is thought that it will lead to a wide gap between the urban and rural population as the rural population is likely to produce more children due to reasons like illiteracy and the ‘more children, more hands to work’ concept since China also has a large agriculture sector.

China is very worried about the slow rate of childbirths because this means that the labor market will shrink and the industries will fall short of capable workers. This has a far-reaching impact on the economy as many countries are dependent on Chinese industries.

China, the country which ranks first in terms of population, has always been involved in controlling its population to pace up the development but it has in the long-term proved to be fatal for the country itself.

The new consciousness in China will surely lead to development in birth and eventually in the economic sector. Although the three-child policy is also a violation of the rights of individuals, the uplifting of all restrictions will surely protect the rights of people.

Written By - Disha Jain