DNA Exclusive: Population control, China, and its altered norm of 3-child policy

Zee News Anchor Aditi Tyagi on Monday (May 31) discussed China’s policies over the years to regulate its population. She explained why the country, which once propagated the one-child policy is moving towards the three-child Policy.

New Delhi: Four decades ago China brought the controversial one-child policy in a bid to control its massive population. Today, it is mulling to bring a three-child policy after its two-child policy, which was implemented only a few years ago, failed.

Zee News Anchor Aditi Tyagi on Monday (May 31) discussed China’s policies over the years to regulate its population. She explained why the country, which once propagated one-child policy is moving towards three-child policy.

China is the first country in the world to enact a stringent law regarding population control - the one-child policy in 1979. This policy remained in force in China for 37 years. In 2016, it brought the second-child policy. Now the country is going to bring third-child policy which means people will be able to give birth to three children. The Chinese stand on population control in the last few decades has completely changed.

Why does China now want to increase the population?

The first reason is the historical decline in the rate of population growth in China. When China brought the one-child policy in 1979, its national birth rate was 5.9 percent. But due to the policy, by the year 1990, the national birth rate was reduced to 1.7 percent.

When the second-child policy came to China in 2016, it did not make any difference. Today China's national birth rate has come down to just 1.3 percent.

To keep the population stable, the national birth rate must be at least 2.1 percent. That is why the falling birth rate is a matter of concern for China.

The second reason is the decreasing number of people of working age. For the economic progress of any country, it is necessary that the number of people between 15 years and 60 years should be sufficient. In China, the population of this age category is rapidly decreasing.

In the last 10 years, the share of people of this age has decreased from 70 percent to about 63 percent, while the population of old people is increasing rapidly.

For any country, getting old is not a healthy sign and that is why these figures are worrying China.

Why was China's second-child policy not successful?

The biggest reason for this is the lack of interest in marriage among the people there. A lot of young people are not getting married in China anymore. In addition to this, the youth have to struggle for jobs too. In view of this, the pressure on the government to retire men at the age of 60 and women at the age of 50 has increased.

If we talk about India, the challenge before it today is not to increase the population but to control the population. In the year 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his speech from the Red Fort on the occasion of August 15, that India will face many problems due to the population explosion. He had also said that those who have small family, contribute in the development of the country which is a form of patriotism.

Today, when China has come up with a policy of three children and wants to increase its population, India should also look into this subject and take concrete steps towards population control.