Explainer: Why China has shifted to three-child policy?
The change in policy is intended to improve China's demographic structure, deal with an ageing population and maintain abundant human resources.
Hyderabad: In a major policy shift, China has announced the three-child policy on Monday propelling demographic growth.
The change in policy to allow couples to have three kids rather than two is intended to improve China’s “demographic structure,” deal with an ageing population and maintain “abundant human resources” for the world’s second biggest economy, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.
The decision was implemented five years after Beijing implemented the two-child policy in 2016 – which, according to experts, did not show the desired results to counter the problem of China’s ageing society.
One-child policy
Earlier, China had introduced a strict one-child policy for the majority of its citizens in the late 1970s to keep its population under control.
The strict implementation of the policy led to coerced sterilisations and sex-selective abortions that exacerbated a gender imbalance as many parents preferred male children. During the following four decades, it also led to an ageing society and an impending economic burden.
The latest census data has revealed that China’s population is growing at its most sluggish pace in decades, with the country adding only 72 million in the past decade.
Relaxing one-child policy
From 2016, the Chinese government finally allowed two children per couple – a policy change that didn’t help to arrest the rapid fall in population growth.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics states that 1.2 crore babies were born in China last year, down from 1.465 crore in 2019 — a fall of 18 per cent in one year. The country’s fertility rate has also dropped to 1.3, far below the replacement level of 2.1 necessary for each generation to be fully replenished.
The United Nations expects China’s population to begin declining after 2030. By 2025, the country is set to lose its ‘most populous’ tag to India, which in 2020 had an estimated 138 crore people, 1.5 per cent behind China.
Will the three-child policy help China?
According to reports, experts say relaxing limits on child births alone cannot go a long way in averting an unwanted demographic shift. The main factors behind fewer children being born, they say, are rising costs of living, education and supporting ageing parents.
Cultural changes in having one child or no child is wide among the new generation which may hamper the new policy. However, incentives to couples to have children may also help in the rise of the targeted population.
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