Family planning efforts
China can never afford a let-up on its family planning efforts. Any rebound on population growth rate means heavier burdens on its future sustainable development.
The announcement by the minister of family planning yesterday to keep the country's population within 1.36 billion by the end of 2010 and within 1.45 billion by the end of 2020 has demonstrated the central government's resolve in this regard.
It is definitely right for the central government to keep its family planning policy consistent for many years to come. This is so despite the fact that some negative impacts such as the problem of an aging population are looming and will call for enough efforts to tackle them.
Yet, forging ahead with the family planning policy is one thing, and making enough efforts to deal with the side effects is another. Work on the two fronts does not contradict each other and must receive equal attention.
One problem that deserves attention is the unbalanced sex ratio - more male than female newborns in many areas. The average sex ratio was 120.2:100 nationwide in 2007 and it was as high as 130:100 in five provinces. If the male and female ratio for newborns remains on this level until 2020, one in every five young boys will have no chance to find a spouse. Thirty to 40 million men remaining single can be a threat to social stability and harmony.
It will take time for people, especially those in remote and underdeveloped rural areas, to change their preference for boys if they are allowed to have only one or two babies. But the illegal practice of testing the sex of fetuses with medical equipment must be cracked down on.
In addition, gender discrimination against women in job recruitment and other areas must be eliminated, which will hopefully help reduce the preference for boys over girls.
The ever-expanding proportion of the aged population also requires enough preparations for the coming of an aging society. People above 65 now make up 8.1 percent of the total population. The percentage will rise to 11.1 by the year 2020 and finally reach 22 percent by the year 2040.
To guarantee the aged a happy life with necessary social security will, among other things, relieve the young people with only one child of their worries about their own old age.
Rural areas, the underdeveloped ones in particular, pose special challenges in implementing family planning. So do migrating families, mostly rural migrant workers in urban areas. Among other things, poverty is a primary cause for their preference for more children, who they believe will provide for their old age.
The central government's policies to increase the income of rural villagers and provide them social security will quite likely facilitate family planning among them.
Between 800,000 and 1.2 million children born with defects every year constitute another burden on many families and the society at large. Pre-marriage medical checkup and regular checkup during pregnancy must be strengthened.
No let-up in family planning efforts means arduous work in all these areas, which will have a bearing on the overall quality of Chinese people's life.
(China Daily 10/24/2008 page8)
