Family planning used to be China's national policy, which played a vital role in controlling the rate of population growthAmong them, Rudong County, Jiangsu Province, which was the former "National Advanced County for Family Planning", is the most typical.
Walking into the streets of Rudong County, the construction on both sides of the road is outdated, and the whole city is like a dull old man.
The road is full of old people with silver hair basking in the sunThe current situation of Rudong County is only a microcosm of the intensification of China's aging.
So how did Rudong County get to the embarrassing situation full of old people from the beginning of family planning?
What is the background of the times and the pros and cons of the implementation of family planning?In the face of the trend of aging the national population, what measures should China implement to improve the current situation?
For the Chinese nation, the concept of having more children and more blessings has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people since ancient times, and having multiple children is also an act of strengthening the lintel.
In ancient times, it was not easy for peasants to live, and having a child was to have a strong labor force, which could reduce the family's taxes and laborSince ancient times, our country has had a tradition of having multiple children.
At the beginning of the 20th century, when the world was in turmoil, having more children at this time would increase the possibility of inheritance.
With the establishment of New China, the society returned to stabilityThe enthusiasm of the people in our country for childbirth has reached an unprecedented peak.
Due to the operation mode of public ownership of land, the newborn's food and housing security brigade will give you a full pocket, and one more mouth can give one more foodParents do not have parenting pressure, which makes the number of newborns in China at this stage continue to rise.
At the beginning of the 20th century, China's total population was only 400 million, but by 1980, China's total population was approaching the 1 billion markReached a staggering 9With 8.7 billion people, the total population has almost doubled.
It is worth noting that the population structure at this time presents an obvious funnel-shaped, with young people accounting for the largest proportion and being the main force of childbearing.
If the current fertility situation is left unchecked, it is only a matter of time before the total population exceeds 2 billion or 3 billion.
The increase in the total population has brought about a continuous demand for food and land, and the land that can be cultivated and suitable for cultivation in China is limited.
At this time, due to the backwardness of the scientific level, it is impossible to realize the cultivation of large-yield plantsThe number of people who continue to ** is constantly revealing the hidden danger of the Great Famine.
In order to prevent this situation from happening, China comprehensively promoted the family planning policy in 1980The slogan of "late marriage, late childbearing, fewer births, and eugenics" was proposed, and this policy is also known as the "one-child policy".
As soon as this policy was introduced, it achieved remarkable results and played a role in slowing down China's population growth. With this, there are also a series of hidden dangers and drawbacks.
At the beginning of the policy, the acceptance of family planning by the urban population was relatively high, but the acceptance of rural areas was lowThere is a contradiction in order to implement the policy, even for the implementation of forced abortion for pregnant women.
The method of forced abortion will also cause harm and hidden diseases to the woman's body, affecting the life of the mother who has an abortion in the future.
Moreover, due to the traditional patriarchal concept of the Chinese familyIn most areas, it is allowed to have a second child if the first child is a daughter.
As a result of this particular policy, there is an imbalance between men and women, with 30 million more unmarried men than unmarried women, which is causally linked to family planning.
The impact of family planning is far more than that, among which Rudong, Jiangsu, which was once an advanced county in family planning, is the most typicalSo what is the situation of Rudong County in Jiangsu today?
Large-scale implementation of family planning began in 1980, but experiments began around 1960. Rudong County, Jiangsu Province is one of the pilot counties.
Unlike other counties and cities,In Rudong County, the standards for family planning are stricter, and there is almost no human affection to speak of.
It is precisely under this almost harsh demand that Rudong County has achieved remarkable results in the more than 10 years of the pilot project, laying a solid foundation for the nationwide implementation of family planning.
Rudong County also relies on the good implementation of family planningIt has won the title of advanced county in family planning in the country, and it has been in the limelight for a while, and every resident is also very honored.
But with the passage of time, the disadvantages of family planning began to appear in Rudong County one by oneOne of the most significant is the sharp decline in the number of permanent residents.
From the pilot in 1956 to 2010Rudong County's permanent population has decreased by a staggering 866%，The entire city has suffered a serious loss of population and has been reduced to almost an empty city.
This has the effect of family planning, and some of them are afraid of the strictness of family planning in Rudong County, so they leave their hometowns and choose to live in other cities.
In addition, the aging population in Rudong County is also very serious. The elderly population in Rudong County now accounts for about 50% of the total population, and it is still showing a continuous trend.
For comparison,The proportion of teenagers in Rudong County is only 8 of the total population9%, which is much lower than the average level of our country.
The damage of aging to a city is comprehensive, and the most obvious is the lack of labor.
Rudong County used to have a good development trend of heavy industry and manufacturing industry, but the shortage of labor force has led to difficulties in recruiting laborThe development of manufacturing and heavy industry has been forced to slow down, and even forced to build factories in other places.
In addition, there are too many elderly people, resulting in a serious shortage of demand for commodity economy, such as shopping malls, cinemas and other tertiary industries in Dong County, and the overall financial situation continues to deteriorate.
The chain effect of finance is the backwardness of education and infrastructureUrban development is sluggish, and young people can only process in other places in order to support their families, which further aggravates the aging of cities and forms a vicious circleIf it is not changed, then Rudong County will soon become an empty city in the future.
It is worth being vigilant that the current situation of Rudong County is very likely to become a microcosm of China's future development. With the number of people over 60 years old in our country exceeding 2800 million, China has fully entered an aging society, and there is an urgent need for reform, increase the number of newborns, and change the population structure.
So why is the aging phenomenon serious in China, and how to reform and improve the situation of population aging in Rudong County?
The latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2023 shows that:The number of deaths in China in 2023 is 11.1 million, but the number of newborns is only 9.02 millionAnd the number of new births is still decreasing.
The deepening of the aging of the population and the shortage of newborns are not only a problem in Rudong County, but also a difficulty faced by China as a whole.
It is only to let go of the second and third children, which only treats the symptoms but not the root cause, ignoring the essence of the slowdown in population growth.
The continuous cost of raising children in contemporary times, as well as the excessive pressure of adult life, are the fundamental reasons that limit the increase in the number of newborns.
Poisoned by family planning,Most families today operate on a "4+2+1" model.
"4" refers to the four elderly people in the family, "2" refers to the husband and wife, the main labor force of the family, and "1" refers to the children who need to be raised.
2 adults support 4 elderly people and raise 1 child, which is enough to exhaust the mind, and it is really powerless to raise more.
And due to the imperfection of China's welfare policy, major family events mainly rely on family savings to cover the bottom.
For example, after a major illness or disaster, even after a part of the medical insurance is reimbursed, the remaining amount is an astronomical amount for ordinary people.
The cost of children's education is also constantly increasing, and the increasing cost of schoolwork, tutoring, make-up fees, etc., is a large monthly expense.
The elderly dare not get sick, the husband and wife dare not eat, drink and consume, and the children dare not fall behind in their studies, and the family is strugglingEven most families are burdened with expensive mortgages, making life more difficult, and naturally unable to have more children, helping the country improve the situation of declining fertility.
Bring the surface to the point,Improving the current situation of population aging in Rudong County will also play a role in slowing down the overall aging degree in China.
If Rudong County wants to change the current aging population, the most important step is to attract young people to return. The key to this is to provide competitive jobs for the local community.
Rudong County can be based on the local area, look for advantageous industries, and vigorously develop local advantageous industries through financial subsidies to attract investment and subsidize enterprises, so as to attract young people around to live and add vitality to the city.
The second is to improve education and housing. Improve the quality of education, reduce the cost of schooling, and lower the threshold for children to go to school in Rudong County, so that young people can have a sense of belonging to Rudong and take root in Rudong.
The second is to reduce the ** of real estate, and give financial subsidies to outsiders or local young people to buy houses in RudongReduce the stress of the life of today's young people. Only when the pressure of life is less, then the intention to have children will be high.
If you want to improve the aging situation, the top priority is to reduce the remaining costs, strengthen social welfare, and improve the happiness index of residents' livesOnly in this way can we reverse the aging of the population and bring the development of China's population structure back to a healthy and regular state.
Due to the rapid increase in population in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, China implemented the national policy of family planning, but the disadvantages of family planning have led to the serious aging of the population today, among which Rudong, an advanced county in the former family planning, is the most significant.
Only by reducing the living pressure of young people and improving social welfare benefits can we increase young people's willingness to have children and return the fertility rate of China's population to normal.