China Relaxes Two Child Policy: Lessons for India | Coercive Population Policies Don't Work | RSS calls for ‘comprehensive policy on population

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Why in News​

Recently, China relaxed its two child policy and announced it will now allow three children per married couple.

• It also announced that it would increase the retirement age by a few months every year. For the past four decades, the retirement age in China has been 60 for men and 55 for women.

Key Points​

• China’s Population Policies:
  • One Child Policy:
    • China embarked upon its one-child policy in 1980, when its government was concerned that the country’s growing population, which at the time was approaching one billion, would impede economic progress.
      • Chinese authorities have long hailed the policy as a success, claiming that it helped the country avert severe food and water shortages by preventing up to 40 crore people from being born.
    • It was a source of discontent, as the state used brutal tactics such as forced abortions and sterilisations.
    • It also met criticism and remained controversial for violating human rights, and for being unfair to the poor.
  • Two Child Policy:
    • From 2016, the Chinese government finally allowed two children per couple– a policy change that did little to arrest the rapid fall in population growth.
  • Three Child Policy:
    • It was announced after China’s 2020 census data showed that the country’s rate of population growth is falling rapidly despite the 2016 relaxation.
    • The country’s fertility rate has dropped to 1.3, far below the replacement level of 2.1required for a generation to have enough children to replace it.
      • The United Nations expects China’s population to begin declining after 2030, but some experts say this could happen as early as in the next one or two years.
• Concerns of Falling Population:
  • Decreased Labour:
    • When the young population in a country declines, it creates labour shortages, which have a major detrimental impact on the economy.
  • Increased Social Spending:
    • More older people also means that demands for healthcare and pensions can soar, burdening the country’s social spending system further when fewer people are working and contributing to it.
  • Critical for Developing Nations:
    • A problem unique to China, though, is that unlike the other developed countries part of this trend, it is still a middle-income society, despite being the world’s second-largest economy.
    • Prosperous countries like Japan and Germany, which face similar demographic challenges, can depend on investments in factories, technology and foreign assets.
    • China, however, still depends on labour-intensive manufacturing and farming.
    • A drop in demographic dividend could thus hurt China and other developing nations like India more than those in the rich world.
• Lessons For India:
  • Avoid Stringent Measures:
    • Stringent population control measures have landed China in a human crisis that was inevitable. If coercive measures like a two-child limit are enforced, India’s situation could be worse.
  • Women Empowerment:
    • The proven ways to lower the fertility rate are to give women the control over their fertility and ensure their greater empowerment through increased access to education, economic opportunities and healthcare.
      • As a matter of fact, China’s fertility reduction is only partly attributable to coercive policies, and is largely because of the sustained investments the country had made in education, health and job opportunities for women.
  • Need to Stabilize Population:
    • India has done very well with its family planning measures and now it is at replacement level fertility of 2.1, which is desirable.
    • It needs to sustain population stabilisation because in some States like Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala and Karnataka, the total fertility rate is way below replacement level, which means it can experience in 30-40 years what China is experiencing now.

India’s Case​

• India’s Population Growth:
  • India’s population is estimated to be over 1.36 billion as of March 2021, indicating an estimated 12.4% growth over the last decade.
    • That is lower than the 17.7% between 2001 and 2011.
  • However, a 2019 United Nations report had projected India to overtake China as the most populous country by 2027.
    • India is expected to add nearly 273 million people between 2019 and 2050.
• Indian Measures for Population Control:
  • Prime Minister’s Appeal: During his Independence Day Speech in 2019, the Prime Minister appealed to the country that population control was a form of patriotism.
  • Mission Parivar Vikas: The Government launched Mission Parivar Vikas in 2017 for substantially increasing access to contraceptives and family planning services in 146 high fertility districts.
  • Compensation Scheme for Sterilization Acceptors: Under the scheme, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare provides compensation for loss of wages to the beneficiary and also to the service provider (& team) for conducting sterilizations from the year 2014.
  • National Family Planning Indemnity Scheme (NFPIS) : This scheme was launched in the year 2005. Under this scheme, clients are insured in the eventualities of death, complication and failure following sterilization.

https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-up...na-relaxes-two-child-policy-lessons-for-india

More Coercive policies will create more problems, Bai Lan is symptom not a problem

India Should Learn From China, Coercive Population Policies Don't Work: NGO​

After China revised its two-child policy, the Population Foundation of India said those who have been demanding that India should enforce limits on the number of children should realise their suggestion is misplaced.
New Delhi: China’s revision of its two-child policy shows that empowering women and enhancing their capabilities works better than coercive population policies, the Population Foundation of India said in a statement, adding that it hopes those who have been demanding that India should enforce limits on the number of children will realise their suggestion is misplaced.

On May 31, China announced that couples would now be allowed to have up to three children – admitting that the consequences of the one child norm, which was replaced with a two-child limit in 2016, were counterproductive. The announcement came after recently published census data reported a dramatic decline in births and recording the sharpest slowing down of population in decades.

In its statement, the Population Foundation of India, an NGO which advocates for the effective formulation and implementation of gender sensitive population, health and development strategies and policies, noted, “Particularly disconcerting to China has been the sharp decline in the proportion of population in the age group of 15-59 from 22.9% in 2000 to 9.8% in 2020. So, China’s population continues to age. The proportion of people aged 60 years and above is 18.70% of total population in 2020 as against 13.26% in 2010.”

The strict birth limits have created a “rapidly aging population and shrinking work force” that is straining the country’s economy, the statement says.

“India and its states must learn from China’s failed experience with enforcing coercive population policies,” the PFI adds. The statement also notes that religion has little do with fertility levels but what makes the difference is “education, employment opportunities and accessibility of contraceptives”.

“Ultimately, however, it is all about the control that women have over fertility decisions. This is one reason why India’s fertility rate is 2.2 even when a large majority of Indian women – cutting across caste, geography, income and religion – want to have fewer than two children,” the statement says.

The complete statement has been reproduced below.
Lessons for India as China calls off two-child policy

Empowering women, enhancing their capabilities is the contraceptive India needs, not enforcement of coercive population policies.

China has finally realised the futility of enforcing a one child norm or replacing it with a two-child limit as it did in 2016. On May 31, 2021, the Chinese government revised its policy and allowed couples to have up to three children – reversing and admitting that the consequences of such measures were counterproductive. The announcement comes in the wake of recently published Census data reporting a dramatic decline in births and recording the sharpest slowing down of population in decades. With this, one hopes that those who have been demanding that India emulate China in enforcing a one child norm or a two-child limit will realise how misplaced their suggestion is.

China released the key preliminary findings from its seventh national population census in May 2021. The population of Mainland China grew to 1.41 billion in 2020 – up from 1.34 billion in 2010. This marked a slowing down of the annual population growth rate from 0.57 percent between 2000-2010 to 0.53 percent annually between 2010-2020. Particularly disconcerting to China has been the sharp decline in the proportion of population in the age group of 15-59 from 22.9 percent in 2000 to 9.8 percent in 2020. So, China’s population continues to age. The proportion of people aged 60 years and above is 18.70 percent of total population in 2020 as against 13.26 percent in 2010.

China introduced the one-child policy in the late 1970s in an attempt to boost economic progress by slowing down the rapid population growth, before reversing it in 2016 to allow families to have two children. The strict birth limits have created a rapidly aging population and shrinking work force that is straining the country’s economy.

India and its states must learn from China’s failed experience with enforcing coercive population policies. Stringent population control measures have created a population crisis for China. Today Sikkim and Lakshadweep also face the challenges of an aging population, shrinking labour workforce and an increase in sex selective practices, given that the total fertility rate (TFR) well below the replacement level.

Religion has little to do with fertility levels. Muslim dominated countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh, have out-performed India in terms of falling birth rates. Even within India, the fertility rates among Muslims in Kerala is lower than the fertility rates among Hindus in Bihar. States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh have proven that it is not religion that matters. What has made the difference is education, employment opportunities and accessibility of contraceptives. In neighbouring Sri Lanka, fertility rates were stabilised by simply increasing the age at marriage, a move that was made more effective by ensuring girls were educated.

Ultimately, however, it is all about the control that women have over fertility decisions. This is one reason why India’s fertility rate is 2.2 even when a large majority of Indian women – cutting across caste, geography, income and religion – want to have fewer than two children. India’s southern states have lowered their fertility rates. It is vital to remember that they did this, not by adopting coercive policies, but by ensuring greater empowerment of women though increased access to education, economic and other development opportunities.
https://thewire.in/rights/india-china-population-control-policies-pfi-two-child