China seeks to stimulate the birth rate, to help families in the fight against population decline

BEIJING: China on Monday (Oct 28) outlined steps to improve family planning and child-rearing measures to increase the number of children born, the State Council, or Cabinet, said in a statement. the population has been declining for two years in a row.

The birth rate hit a record low last year in China, with a population of 1.4 billion, as another Asian giant, India, overtook it to become the world’s most populous nation.

The state council called for efforts to build a “new culture of marriage and childbearing” by promoting respect for childbearing, marriage at an appropriate age, and shared parental responsibility for child care.

Among the proposed measures are improved maternity insurance, maternity leave, subsidies and medical resources for children, with the Cabinet calling on local authorities to budget for childcare centers and charge preferential taxes and fees for such services.

“Maintaining the birth rate at this stage is of great importance,” said Yang Chang, chief policy analyst at Zhongtai Securities Research Institute, adding that Monday’s statement would serve as a model for future measures.

With the number of women of childbearing age between 15 and 49 likely to decline and the desire to have children unlikely to increase anytime soon, political support is key to helping reverse the downward trend, he added.

Although China abandoned its 35-year-old one-child policy in 2015, it has struggled to raise the birth rate, especially at a time when rural residents have fled to cities in search of work.

Another area of ​​discussion is education, with local authorities being asked to increase financial aid for students from disadvantaged families, with mention of a “gradual expansion of free education”.

Local authorities were also asked to help cope with the housing and employment burden by providing more support for families with several children to buy a home, and to strengthen protections for pregnant women and new mothers among workers.

Another way to stimulate the birth rate was the creation of non-commercial platforms for young people where they could make friends, meet and get married, the Cabinet of Ministers notes.

The measures adopted on Monday are the result of a survey conducted this month by public health officials to understand the factors that determine attitudes towards and fear of having children.