IB Geog- Anti Natalist Policy China
What? :
- Couples are encouraged to have only one child, if a child is born a girl parents would have the chance to have a second child to try for a boy.
- After second child, they would be discouraged from having any more children.
- The government imposes rewards & penalties to encourage and discourage familes.
- Exceptions to the policy: familes living in rural areas, ethnic minorities, disabled children, parents who work in high-risk occupations.
- China = 120 male births for every 100 girls
When? :
- After China improved sanitation & medicine prompted growth in the population
- Economic boom after a century of wars, epidemics and unrest
- 1962- massive famine caused by 30 million deaths.
- China's population growth dropped by half from 1970 to 1976, still the country needed drastic measures.
- 1979- One Child Policy was introduced
Where?:
- Eastern Asia, China
- The policy mostly applies in Chinas cities for example Hongkong, Shanghai, Tanjin, Beijing....
Why?:
- Population of China was much to high.
- 400 million births have been prevented
- Chairman Mao, led China from 1949-1976, he believed that a fast growing population was necessary for China to have great power.
- Deng Xiaoping reversed this trend and thought it was wrong.
- There is a painful cost the the one child benefits as it adds extra cost when encouraging families to have one child.
How?:
- The policy restricts couples in urban China to only having one child.
- Rewards for having one child = higher wages, interest-free loans, retirement funds, priority housing and school fees cheaper.
- Penalties for having more than one child= fines from $370 to $12,800, pressures to abort pregnancy, confiscated belongings, geting fired from work.
- Propaganda posters, paintings, quotes were everywhere in China to encourage familes to have only one child.
Advantages for the One Child Policy:
- better for China's environment
- lower fertility rate
- poverty eradication
- economic factors
- high employment
- high sale on contreception, less STI's
Disadvantages for Chinas One Child Policy:
- forced abortions
- human rights violation
- social problems for generation of only one child
- birth tourism, giving birth in another country then flying back.
- ageing popultion
- gender inequality
- "4,2,1" problem. One child looking after two parents and four grand-parents.
- More single men
- rise in prostituation
- rise in children put into orphanage
My Rant on One Child Policy: