According to Our World in Data, the world’s populations has grown from 1 billion in the 1800’s to 7.7 billion in 2021. And as of yet China has been holding the title for the world’s most populated country for the last few centuries. As stated by the data collected, in 2021, China is still in the lead by having inhabitants amounting up to 1.44 billion, which makes up for about 19-20% of the entire world’s population. This has been causing consistent social and economic issues. Overly populates areas have been facing problems regarding exhausted resources, increased pollution, degradation of land and worsening living conditions. For a country that was still in the process of balancing between holding on to its agricultural roots and industrialization, dealing with the rapidly increasing population was becoming difficult day by day. As a result of this unstable ratio, more and more people started stared to starve due to food shortage as China simply could not produce enough for its own people.
Realising the utter chaos that was befalling the country, there were many, although futile, steps taken to control the population. These methods included family planning and birth programmes that advised keeping a family to a minimum. There was even a 2-child policy which lasted for almost a decade, between the years 1970 to 1980. However, especially in the rural areas, where the families depended on a larger brood to work on farms, this was next to impossible. People then started to fake documentations or stopped reporting births to district officials altogether. The district officials too sometimes were involved in the process as they would eventually be held accountable for the increasing numbers and suffer punishments including loss of privileges. So regardless of whatever initiative was undertaken, it was mostly ineffective.
All throughout the 1970’s, problems like starvation and shrinking natural resources continued to persist. Even after the 2 – child policy and campaigns like “Later, Longer and Fewer”, as in late marriages, longer interval between births and fewer children, there was little difference. After looking at the condition of the country, a Chinese leader named Deng Xiaoping introduced the one – child policy, in the year 1979, to try and curb the population rate, which was estimated at 970 million at the time. Somewhat lenient in the beginning this policy started to have remarkable effect especially in the urban areas where cost of raising a child was considerable. Therefore the demand for this policy grew and by 1980, the central government started to pursue standardisation of this law all over the country.
The policy demanded that each and every family who was expecting a child must obtain a family planning service certificate and agree to have only one child. Families that agreed to the policy would have several benefits including better employment opportunities, government assistance and remarkably higher wages. Whosoever refused to abide by the law had to face punishments like taxation that amounted up to 50% of their earnings or loss of employment and other benefits.
Not only that but in the late 20th century, they even used methods like forced abortions for unplanned pregnancies, vasectomies, and tubal ligations in the name of the policy. If not sterilization, the women were forced to get IUD’s and other forms of birth control. This policy is estimated to have prevented approximately 400 million births since its official commence. Unconventional methods were also employed by the government to make sure the people were obeying, for example enforcing the policy through the “Neighbourhood Watch” where neighbours were encouraged to spy at each other and report any suspicions anonymously for rewards. There was strict supervisions over both urban and rural areas. A journal article by Harvard researchers about the rural area officials stated, “these birth planning enforcers kept detailed records on each woman of child-bearing age under their responsibility, including past births, contraceptive usage, and even menstrual cycles.“
There were exceptions for example if a family had a daughter and wanted a son or if the first child was disabled in any manner or belonged to a minority ethnic group etc.
The news about an unconventional policy to curb the population rate reached all corners of the world and was met with utter disdain. Many countries including USA publically expressed their criticism regarding the forced sterilisations and openly disapproved. In addition to that the local Chinese citizens started to react violently. China had to face denunciation from all over the world.
This policy even led to a large number of female infanticide (killing of female babies) by families with cultural preferences for a son. As a result of which the government had to include the exception of “daughter only household” policy that allowed rural couples to have another baby if the first was female.
The initial years of the policy proved to be more than effective in controlling the population as more and more people started to have access to medical insurance, natural resources and food supply. In the 35 years, this policy was implemented, the living standards of China’s people have increased exponentially as it made more and more technological advances. This, in turn, also increased people’s life expectancy from 35 years in 1949 to 70 years in 1996. Nevertheless, several problems started to arise a decade or two from when the policy was initially instated. These problems included:
Gender Imbalance- one unintended result of this policy is that China became the most gender-imbalanced country in the world. This was due to the cultural preference of male children because of which the families opted to abort female fetuses. According to data collected in 2019, the gender ratio was 114 males for every 100 females.
Decreasing Workforce– as more and more people aged they began to retire in huge numbers and due to the policy in place there were fewer and fewer young ones to take their place
Aging- since the implementation of this policy, the fertility rate has continued to decline. In 2018 the data stated the fertility rate to be 1.7 which meant on average women gave birth to 1.7 children. This meant that there were more adults who were aging than there were children or youngsters. The average family structure of “4-2-1”, as in 4 grandparents, 2 parents, and 1 child, was beginning to concern people as there was only one child to support the adults in old age. In 2020, an estimated population of 17.4% was over the age of 60.
The huge decline in the workforce is said to be the main reason China started easing on the strict one-child policy. Since more and more people retired due to various reason, mainly old age, there were a meagre amount to fill in their spaces. For a developed, industrialised country these numbers were unacceptable. Therefore in 2013 the Chinese government relaxed the terms of the policy and by 2015-2016 this policy was completely revoked.
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