One-Child Policy "EMPOWER IAS"

In news:

• China will for the first time allow couples to have a third child in a further relaxation of family planning rules five years after a “two-child policy” largely failed to boost birth rates.

 

What was the One-Child Policy?

• China embarked upon its one-child policy in 1980 when the Communist Party was concerned that the country’s growing population, which at the time was approaching one billion, would impede economic progress.
• The policy was implemented more effectively in urban areas.
• It was enforced through several means, including incentivizing families financially to have one child, making contraceptives widely available, and imposing sanctions against those who violated the policy.

 

What’s good about One Child Policy?

1. Helps to ease the over population problems.
2. It is seen as practical by some families.
3. Lowers the poverty rate.

 

Why it isn’t a good idea?

1. The enforcement is unequal.
2. It is a human rights violation.
3. Shrinking work population.
4. Gender imbalance due to the strong cultural preference of boys for labor and work.
5. Increase in abortions and female infanticide.
6. Extra babies end up being illegal and never becoming a citizen, due to fines.
7. Intrudes on people’s personal values and opinions.

 

How well did China’s one-child policy work?

• Population growth impeding economic growth: China embarked upon its one-child policy in 1980, when the Communist Party was concerned that the country’s growing population, which at the time was approaching one billion, would impede economic progress.
• Multi-pronged implementation: One child policy, which was implemented more effectively in urban areas, was enforced through several means, including incentivising families financially to have one child, making contraceptives widely available, and imposing sanctions against those who violated the policy.
• Initial Success: Chinese authorities have long hailed the policy as a success, claiming that it helped the country avert severe food and water shortages by preventing up to 40 crore people from being born.
• Criticisms of One Child Policy: However, the one-child limit was also a source of discontent, as the state used brutal tactics such as forced abortions and sterilisations. It also met criticism and remained controversial for violating human rights, and for being unfair to poorer Chinese since the richer ones could afford to pay economic sanctions if they violated the policy.
• Tool of Social Control: Additionally, China’s rulers have been accused of enforcing reproductive limits as a tool for social control. The Uighur Muslim ethnic minority, for example, has been forced to have fewer children to restrict the growth of their population.
• Skewed sex ratio: Due to the policy, while the birth rate fell, the sex ratio became skewed towards males. This happened because of a traditional preference for male children in the country, due to which abortion of female foetuses rose and so did the number of girls who were placed in orphanages or abandoned.
• Problem of faster ageing: Experts have also blamed the policy for making China’s population age faster than other countries, impacting the country’s growth potential. India’s population, for instance, will start ageing from the middle of this century onwards.

 

How well did the policy fare?

• Chinese authorities have long hailed the policy as a success, claiming that it helped the country avert severe food and water shortages by preventing up to 40 crore people from being born.
• However, the policy was also a source of discontent, as the state used brutal tactics such as forced abortions and sterilizations.
• It also met criticism and remained controversial for violating human rights, and for being unfair to poorer Chinese since the richer ones could afford to pay economic sanctions if they violated the policy.
• Additionally, China’s rulers have been accused of enforcing reproductive limits as a tool for social control.
• The Uighur Muslim ethnic minority, for example, has been forced to have fewer children to restrict the growth of their population.

 

Demographic changes due to the policy

• Due to the policy, while the birth rate fell, the sex ratio became skewed towards males.
• This happened because of a traditional preference for male children in the country, due to which abortion of female fetuses rose and so did the number of girls who were placed in orphanages or abandoned.
• Experts have also blamed the policy for making China’s population age faster than other countries, impacting the country’s growth potential.
• It is also suggested that because of the long-lingering impact of the policy, China would be unable to reap the full benefits of its economic growth and will need other ways to support it.

 

Why such policies are not suitable for India?

• The implications of such a policy being enforced in India would surely have been more disastrous than it did in China.
• India is way behind China in basic development indicators like life expectancy, IMR and maternal mortality rate. The preference of a male child, the regional disparities in development, and the growing intolerance against minorities in the present milieu would be further magnified with the state entering homes and enforcing such strict norms.
• The fact that women are at the receiving end of such policies in a patriarchal society is another story in itself. The burden of limiting family size falls on the woman, and most often female sterilisations are promoted rather than giving the couple the choice of contraception.
• Limiting family size cannot be an end in itself at the neglect of basic needs and services like food security, housing, education, and health.