Chinas population policy

1
Chinas population policy

• Sophie
• Kim
• Will

2
What is the policy?

• The "one-child" policy is not a law, as most
  people think it is, "it is a policy enforced by
  the system of punishments"
• Though there is a Marriage Law since 1980,
  insisting the practice of family planning, there
  is not one on the amount of children one family
  can have.
• The marriage Law encourages late marriages, late
  childbirths, one child per couple, and it helps
  space the time between children being born.
  Having one child is really encouraged, more in
  the urban areas than in the countryside.
• Women who are pregnant who have been authorized
  by the government, get birth coupons entitling
  them to have a child. Women who don't have their
  births authorized risk being punished by the
  government.
• Results for following the policy can include
  things like monthly financial rewards, extended
  maternity leave, increases land allocation,
  preferential treatment in education, housing and
  employment.

3
What is the policy?

• There are also punishments that go to the whole
  town, not just an individual, for not having a
  pregnancy authorized, which include Fines,
  forfeiture of government benefits, demotion and
  discharge from government work.
• Families whose first child is unable to work,
  pregnancy that occurs after couples decided to
  adopt, and those returning over seas, are allowed
  to have a second child.
• If the people do not follow the policy then they
  are persuaded to have abortions or maybe forced
  to leave the city. Or even put their child up for
  adoption.

4
Why was it introduced?

• The biggest population in the world 1.3 billion.
• This means that it is a challenge to provide
  sufficient food to feed the expanding population.
  
• - The population of China is forecast to grow by
  375 million over the period 1995 to 2040.
• - Is doubtful that China can sustain the
  necessary increase in grain production.
• - The decline in the absolute amount of arable
  land may reduce the effects of technical
  improvements.
• - China is being lost to natural disasters and
  urbanisation and soil erosion.
• Another problem is unemployment and
  underemployment.
• - The unemployment rate is expected to increase
  by 30 between 1995 and 2020.

5
The one child policy

• In 1978, the most harsh and controversial family
  planning policy to date was introduced.
• Only one child was allowed in every family.
• Mainly in urban areas.
• A major consequence is the change in sex ratio
  within the country. As a result of higher
  mortality rates for female children because they
  want males if they can only have one child.
• But in 1990, the sex ratio had risen to 100
  females to 111.7 males.
• This means that there will be a shortfall of
  women in the important fertile age groups.
• By only having one child this means that there
  will be less strain on the economy as the food
  shortages will not be as severe and the
  unemployment rate will not be so high.
• There will also be a decrease in population,
  which means that there will be more available
  houses, and china will not be so crowded.
• In order to reach its goals, the policy will
  limit births, educate people about the problems,
  and ensure it is the same for everyone.

6
Why people fight against this form of population
control

• Many families are killing their new born babies,
  if they are not males. Hundreds are being
  drowned, smothered, and abandoned, by the family.
  The families keep trying to have children, with
  the hopes that their next will be a boy.
• When a boy is born, there is a great celebration
  with fireworks, but when there is a girl born,
  there is silence. These infant girls are referred
  to as "maggots in the rice".
• The UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund had
  been giving money to China. To aid their failing
  resources 40 million was given in 1994, however
  when they determined that the money was going
  towards abortions, to further violate women and
  unborn girls, they stopped. Now it funds for the
  programs that they find are completely voluntary.
  The goals for the UNFPA are to provide health
  care that doesn't involve coercion, education for
  the citizens, and freedom to make choices without
  getting harassment.
• Women are getting forced to have abortions.
• This policy means that people have no, brothers
  and sisters, uncles, cousins etc

7
Problems

• Sex imbalance
• Age related problems
• Less people of working age
• Ageing population
• Takes away peoples freedoms
• Some people would like to have a big family but
  are restricted
• High infant mortality rates in females
• Increase in abortions

8
How effective has it been?What is the situation
today?

• The population has begun to decrease which has
  helped to ease the problems.
• On the other hand, the policy itself has raised a
  lot of issues and so there are new problems that
  the government has to deal with, like infant
  mortality.
• The situation today is that expectant mothers are
  persuaded to have abortions, there is a high
  infant mortality rate among females but there is
  a decrease in population and this is expected to
  continue.
• On the next page we will illustrate the situation
  using the statistics of China.

9
Statistics

• Population distribution of China.
• As you can see there is a dense population which
  is more concentrated in urban areas rather than
  rural and this is why, the population policy was
  introduced.

10
Population of China
11
Population pyramids
As the graph shows, there are more males of age
0-4 than females.
In the future, there will still be more male
babies than females and there will be an ageing
population. Which brings its own problems.