China One Child Policy
Population growth is one of the major concerns in the world due to the effect it has on resources. With the growth in population, resources become scarce and the planet cannot contain the competition. Population control methods such as sterilization are always put in control to deal with the dangers of a high population. China is one of the most populated countries with a population of 1.3 billion people. It has been experienced over time and in the early times as early as 1949 measures had to be put to control the population. The policy was made for a family to only have one child unless for specific cases. However, the policy was well implemented starting the late 70s to have a control population. The one-child policy was to take care of the overgrowing population both in rural and urban centers. The policy was however limited to families whose first children were girls, minority tribes, and children with disabilities. The policy will see the population reduce with a margin in areas that implementation was taken care of accordingly. However, it didn’t work as the policy was done within the year 2016 to allow families to have more than one child (Feng, Gu & Cai, 2016).
The implementation of the one-child policy was a key factor in controlling the population in China. Implementation was not easy as some of the citizens were against the policy in the early times. The government put up measures that will enable them to achieve population growth in the country. The main aim of the population growth with the one-child policy was to address some crucial issues. It was to allow all Chinese to have an equal share in the distribution of resources and get rid of congestion (Whyte, Feng & Cai, 2015). The target group for the policy was the urban centers where the government could not run their activities. To achieve the success the government first made it a law for all the citizens (Li et al., 2019). To encourage citizens to participate in the policy the government issued goodies. Some of the goodies given included employment to the families to make them survive. In addition to that, the government issued incentives to the citizen to allow them to run their operations effectively. The government will then induce sterilize to the families and other family planning methods. However, the government took an extra hand for those against the policy (Zeng, Zhang & Liu, 2017). The state issue sanction to such individual and also forced abortion in some cases.
The policy was however exceptional to some cases and the government allowed for that by giving support. It was mainly experienced in the rural areas of China where they had minority tribes that needed to be saved. The government issued the families with additional children when it came to giving birth. The policy brought some sanity and reduce the population growth in China over time. Most of the Chinese who were for the policy believed more in their tradition and cultures. The cultures demanded them to have boys as children who will take over their properties. In the case of the policy, many families aborted whenever Ultrasound indicated girls as their firstborn. In other cases families that had girls as their firstborn abandoned them in the streets. It is this that increased the population of men in China as opposed to the ladies. In addition to that, it increased the number of street children in urban centers. Also, it leads to some abandoned children having adopted in other countries such as America. With such consequences, there was no need to get a solution to the issue. It is what moved a motion to deal with the one-child policy in China.
China’s population was one of the biggest challenges that the country was facing at the time of economic growth. The population was growing at a rate that the resources could not accommodate. It needed the country to come with a way in which it will make sure that they control the population. It is this that moved them into the one-child policy that will see the population growth reduce. The control of the population though came along with other consequences that were not anticipated. The country was forced to review the policy to deal with the issue of street children and gender ratio. It is this that dealt with the one-child policy in 2016 that will allow families to have more children.
Reference
Feng, W., Gu, B., & Cai, Y. (2016). The End of China’s One-Child Policy. Studies In Family Planning, 47(1), 83-86. doi: 10.1111/j.1728-4465.2016.00052.x
Li, H., Xue, M., Hellerstein, S., Cai, Y., Gao, Y., & Zhang, Y. et al. (2019). Association of China’s universal two child policy with changes in births and birth related health factors: national, descriptive comparative study. BMJ, l4680. doi: 10.1136/bmj.l4680
Whyte, M., Feng, W., & Cai, Y. (2015). Challenging Myths About China’s One-Child Policy. The China Journal, 74, 144-159. doi: 10.1086/681664
Zeng, Y., Zhang, X., & Liu, L. (2017). From “selective two-child policy” to universal two-child policy: will the payment crisis of China’s pension system be solved?. China Finance And Economic Review, 5(1). doi: 10.1186/s40589-017-0053-3