China's One Child Policy -
IB Geography
What and When
Introduced in 1979 by the leader Deng Xiaping after her saw the potential furture problems. It aims to reduce the fertility rate of the population and therefore reduce the population growth.
Couples encouraged to have 1 child, although there are exceptions;
In rural areas, for babies born overseas, for ethnic minorities, for disabled children, for parents who work in high risk occupations and a new law states that if the first child is a girl the couple may have a second child.
There are rewards for complying to the policy:
Higher wages, interest-free loans, retirement fund , priority housing and school enrolment.
And punishments for not complying:
Fines from $370 to $12800, pressures to abort pregnancy, confiscated belongings and getting fired from work.
Where and Why
China is in Eastern Asia with borders on Mongolia, Russia, India, Nepal, Kazakhstan, Burma and many other south eastern Asia countries.
Although most of its population are concentrated around the eastern coast in the cities with a relatively low population density in the rural west of the country.
The policy was introduced because China faced a huge population growth that it knew it would not be able to sustain and support. It was already suffering for overcrowding in some cities and felt that its resources would no longer be able to support the population. Its target was to have a population of 1.2 billion by 2000.
How
People are persuaded away from their traditional culture of many children and preferring baby boys.
The posters generally depict just one child, often a girl in the effort to counter the gender imbalance. The posters aim to show people that it is better to focus on supporting and raising one child instead of many. The images depicy happy parents with their single child, often holding them aloft in pride.
Advantages of the One Child Policy
It has successful lowered the birth rate and fertility rate. It has prevented an estimated 400 million births since its introduction.
At the introduction of the policy the target population for the year 2000 was 1.2 billion and they came very close to succeeding, with an estimated population of 1.27billion.
Fertility rate has fallen from over 5 in 1970 to 1.55 in 2012, making it among the lowest in the world, with the world average at 2.56 children per woman.
Disadvantages of the One Child Policy
It has resulted in many forced abortions and sterilizations across the country;
25% of Chinese woman of a reproductive age have had at least 1 abortion.
Each day in 2009 more than 35 000 forced abortions were performed.
China has 120 male births for every 100 female births as they are often aborted when their gender is determined. This has led to a huge gender imbalance in the younger population especially.
New laws have been implemented to counter this, such as laws preventing tests to show the gender of babies but their success has been limited as people find ways around the system in their effort to have a boy.
The Rant