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By:

Go, Chloe Faye L.


Uy, Lorraine Claire C.
Uy, Newson Shann L.
ONE CHILD POLICY
PART OF THE FAMILY PLANNING POLICY
IMPLEMENTED BY THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT AS
A METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE EXPLOSIVE
POPULATION GROWTH

INITIALLY MEANT TO BE A TEMPORARY MEASURE,


AND IS ESTIMATED TO HAVE PREVENTED UP TO 400
MILLION BIRTHS SINCE IT WAS INSTITUTED AND
KEPT THE POPULATION DOWN TO ITS CURRENT 1.3
BILLION.

INTRODUCED IN 1979 AND CONTINUED FOR


SOME 36 YEARS, ONLY ENDING ON OCTOBER 29,
2015.
GOALS
1. To make sure that the population growth did
not outpace economic development;
2. To ease environmental and natural resources
challenges;
3. To ease imbalances caused by a rapidly
expanding population.
1949
Population: 540 million

Mao Zedong in power


Improved sanitation and medicine
Condemned birth control and banned imports of
contraceptives

Increase in population = increase in workforce


1970
1970
Population: 940 million
Taking a toll on the nations food supply
there were still widespread shortages of every conceivable consumer goods.
Everything from soap and cloth to eggs and sugar was rationed.

Chinese leaders saw rapid population


growth as an obstacle to development,
thus their interest in birth control.

Initial approach to the problem:


Late, Long and Few campaign
1979
Population: 970 million
Chinese Leader Deng Xiaping introduced in 1979
the one child policy

Wherein:
To enforce the law, the Chinese government could
fine couples for having another child without a
permit.
Fines, pressure to abort a pregnancy, and even
forced sterilization accompanied second or
subsequent pregnancies.
The law also incentivized single-child homes by
offering longer maternity leave, and other benefits
to such families.
Couples who abided by the mandate were awarded
a Certificate of Honor for Single-Child Parents
1980

Second Child was allowed! Those who


are exempted to the rules are:
Ethnic Minorities
Rural Residents
When both parents are only child
2013

The one-child policy was amended to allow couples to have a second child if
either parent instead of both is an only child. However, second children were
sometimes subject to birth spacing (usually 3 or 4 years).
Been responsible for an investment
of over 460 million each year
towards birth control schemes
Generated two trillion yuan
(206bn) in fines
There have been over 350 million abortions since the
implementation of the policy
Prevented 400 million births
The average woman in China had almost six (5.8) children, now she has about two.

Between 1970 and 1980, the birthrate dropped from 44 per 1000 to 18 per 1,000.
Success of the One-Child Policy
The one-child policy has been spectacularly successful in reducing population
growth, particularly in the cities, with a sharp drop to 1.5 births per woman in 2010.
The dual population policy has proved to be effective: China had 200 million
fewer babies born in 1988 than in 1970. The result has been a saving of 3 trillion
yuan ($802 billion).
China has successfully controlled its annual population growth rate to less
than 1.5 percent, as compared with 2.4 percent in underdeveloped
countries and 2.2 percent in Asia.
The reduction of population has helped pull people out of poverty and
been a factor in China's phenomenal economic growth.
Some argue that economic prosperity has done as much as the one-
child policy to shrink population growth. As costs and the expense of having
children in urban areas rise, and the
benefits of children as labor sources
shrink many couples opt not to have
children. Taiwan, Japan and South
Korea, have lower birthrates without
coercive measures, as people marry
later and move into smaller homes.
UNINTENDED EFFECTS
Gender Imbalance
China is the most gender imbalanced country
in the world due to a cultural preference for
male offspring. (This has resulted in the
practice of couples opting to abort female
fetuses. A large number of girls have been
subject to sex-selective abortions or, after birth,
been abandoned or placed in orphanages.
A report from The Atlantic put female figures in
one Chinese orphanage at 90 percent.
The gender ratio in China is 117.6 boys for
every 100 girls born.
Estimates have been made that by 2020,
China will approximately have 30 million
more young men than women, potentially
leading to social instability, and courtship-
motivated emigration.
Unintended Effects
Unintended Effects
Aging Population

The one-child policy has been successful in lowering its birth rate- to an average of 1.5
It is estimated that by 2030, a quarter of the population will be over 60 years old.
Unintended Effects
Aging Population

4-2-1 Problem
Working adult to retiree ratio: 6:1 (2007) and
expected to be 2:1 (by 2040)
Unintended Effects

Shrinking Workforce
Population control had also resulted in a shrinking
work force. Chinas labor force has been on the
decline since 2012. In 2013 it fell by more than 2.4
million. The increasing elderly population and
decreasing labor force was the impetus for the
relaxation and ending of the one child policy.
Unintended Effects

Little Emperor Syndrome

LITTLE EMPEROR
the offspring of one-child families born
after the countrys draconian family
planning policy in 1979
spoilt generation
As the novelist Ma Jian wrote in The Guardian:
In China, procreation and childbirth are, like every
facet of human life, deeply political. Since the
Communist party came to power in 1949, it has
viewed the country's population as a faceless number
that it can increase or decrease as it chooses, not a
society of individuals with unique desires and
inviolable rights.
Although initially introduced as a "temporary
measure", more than 30 years later this barbaric
experiment in social engineering is, astonishingly, still
in force.. Two generations of children have grown
up without siblings, uncles, aunts or cousins. Women
have lost sovereignty of their bodies. The state owns
their ovaries, fallopian tubes and wombs, and has
become the silent, malevolent third participant in
every act of love.
The elimination of life and assault on human dignity
dictated by the one-child policy belong with the worst
tragedies of the past 100 years."

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