Recently, some experts have suggested restarting family planning. As soon as this news came out, it immediately aroused reactions and controversies from all walks of life like a deep-water torpedo.
A lot of people don't understand. Even if I don't want to have a baby, is it possible to have a baby next time? Let's take a look!
01.Expert: Restart family planning.
Our country has long been the most populous country in the world. However, due to the declining birth rate in recent years, the population will decrease by 850,000 in 2022, and the throne of the most populous country will also be occupied by India.
According to official data, the number of newborns in 2022 was only 9.56 million, a decrease of 1.99 million from the previous year. This is the first time in 60 years that the number of births has fallen below 10 million, and its natural population growth rate is -06, which means that China's population has entered an era of negative growth.
Back in 1987, the birth rate was 2333‰。Since then, it has continued to decline, and the population has entered negative growth. From 2016 to 2022 alone, the birth rate went from 1357 down to 677%, directly cut in half.
It is also the negative growth of China's population, which means that the degree of aging is intensifying, which is not conducive to economic and social development at the national level. Such a serious population problem has also aroused widespread concern and heated discussions in society.
For this reason, some experts have suggested that the family planning policy should be restarted. Of course, this "family planning" is to plan more children with the family. It requires each couple to have more children, two or more children, so that the birth rate in our country can be addressed. The problem of continuous decline.
02.Will you give birth even if you don't want to?
There are those who support and those who oppose this suggestion of the experts.
Proponents believe that the resumption of family planning can ensure China's fertility rate, optimize the population structure, increase the proportion of the labor force, ensure the stable and healthy development of the social economy, and provide more demographic dividends for China's future economic development for 20 years.
But many more disagree. After all, everyone has the freedom and right to choose to have children. Having a child should not be decided by policy, but by the actual circumstances of each family.
But now experts are recommending restarting family planning, which means that young couples, whether they want to have children or not, will have children in the future. A lot of people aren't happy with that.
The author believes that the advice of experts is unrealistic. After all, given how today's young people think about fertility, restarting the program could run into a lot of obstacles.
Our country is a country with a large population. The introduction of multi-child family planning requires birth registration of existing couples. This requires a lot of human, material, and financial resources, and many families may not respond to having children. If coercive measures are taken, I am afraid that it will cause criticism and dissatisfaction at the social level.
Therefore, the resumption of "family planning" can only remain at the level of advice and supervision, and cannot be enforced. And given the current social environment, will many people really react to the resumption of family planning?
I don't think it's easy. You must know that as early as 2016, when China relaxed the two-child policy, there were 17.86 million births that year. However, the birth rate has not increased since then. Instead, it continues to decline. The number of births fell to 15.23 million in 2018, 12.02 million in 2020, and only 10.62 million in 2021.
Today, the three-child policy has been fully liberalized, and birth registration has been cancelled. However, China's birth rate continues to decline, indicating that liberalizing childbearing cannot stimulate people's enthusiasm for childbearing.
03.The root cause of the declining birthrate.
1. High work pressure.
With the continuous improvement of the economic level, the burden of people's lives is also increasing. Housing prices, water, electricity, gas, education, medical care and other expenses have always bothered everyone.
Young people not only face difficulties in life, but also under great pressure at work. They have endless overtime every day and have little time to take care of their children. Naturally, they don't want to have any more children.
They work hard to earn money, and in the final analysis, it is for the sake of giving their children a better life. However, for working people, raising one child is a heavy burden, and the stress of raising multiple children is unimaginable.
Statistics show that it costs 48 to raise a child until the age of 1850,000 yuan, it takes 62 to raise a child until he graduates from college70,000 yuan, and the bride price is still needed for the child's marriage. This overdraws the burden on young people, and many people have no choice but to have fewer children.
2. Changes in values.
Today's society has ushered in diversified development. People no longer regard marriage and having children as their first choice in life. Many people prefer the freedom of singleness, do not want to be bound by tradition, and will not marry for the sake of getting married, so they choose not to get married or marry later. 。
There are also some people who are not sure whether they will be able to run a small family of two people after marriage, and they are not sure whether they can take on their own responsibilities, so they are not so urgent about marriage.
Official data show that in 2013, the marriage rate in China was 99, but in 2022 it has dropped to 48‰。Conversely, the divorce rate has increased from 096 to 3 in 20201%。The cooling-off period policy was introduced, and the divorce rate dropped to 2.
As can be seen from the marriage and divorce rates, young people think more. They have a diverse view of marriage and love, pay more attention to the happiness and preferences of life, and will not be bound by marriage.
3. Changes in women's conception of fertility.
Over the years, the status of women in our country has improved significantly. They have achieved outstanding results in various fields. Many women are also focused on their personal careers and may give up or postpone childbearing for personal advancement.
Forced childbirth in the past has put many women under pressure and bondage. They don't want to be used as reproductive tools and are more conscientious about the children they give birth to. Without preparation and ability, they will not rush to have children.
04. Increase the standard of birth subsidies in many places.
Depopulation has a significant impact on a country's development. First of all, the reduction of the working population will inevitably lead to a "labor shortage" in enterprises; Second, a declining population will also weaken consumer demand, and the current real estate winter is also related to the declining population.
In addition, population decline will inevitably lead to the aging of the population, the heavy burden of social pension, the gap in social security funds is large, and more financial resources need to be mobilized.
In order to increase the fertility rate, many localities have introduced or raised the standard of birth subsidies. Many places** offer a variety of welfare incentives for couples who have a second and third child.
For example, Guangxi announced that women who give birth to three children will be entitled to 158 days of maternity leave, and will also increase the reimbursement mechanism for maternity insurance.
Shenzhen announced that families with three children can receive a subsidy of up to 19,000 yuan; Jinan announced that families with two to three children can enjoy a monthly maternity subsidy of 600 yuan until the child is 3 years old; Heilongjiang announced that families with two to three children will receive a maternity subsidy of up to 600 yuan. Children under the age of three can receive a monthly maternity allowance of 500 yuan and 1,000 yuan respectively.
Zhengzhou announced that by the end of 2023, it will give a subsidy of 20,000 yuan to two-child families and 30,000 yuan to three-child families who buy new houses in Zhengzhou.
Hangzhou announced a one-time reward of 5,000 yuan for the second child and 20,000 yuan for the third child. In Wenzhou, older single women under the age of 35 can enjoy a housing subsidy of 15,000-25,000 yuan when they get married, and one-, two-, and three-child families can receive rewards of 1,000 yuan, 2,000 yuan, and 3,000 yuan respectively.
Judging from the birth subsidies in many places mentioned above, in order to stimulate young couples to have children, various localities have come up with various means to send various benefits to their homes, just to reduce the burden of couples having children and raising children. 。
However, if couples want to have more children, proper fertility incentives and subsidies are far from enough. In addition to financial support, society and ** should ensure that women are in stable employment, even if they take time off to give birth or raise children. Even if they are treated unfairly, it is important to ensure fair and equitable competition when women return to the workforce.
* More policies or resources should also be provided to provide more education, training, medical and other services for children, so as to reduce the burden and worries of parents in raising children, and improve the quality of life and happiness of each family.
As for experts' views on the resumption of the family planning policy, the author believes that individual choices should be respected, and everyone's views on fertility should be respected, and their behavior should not be forcibly interfered with. Only in this way can society have more happiness.
Of course, on the basis of respecting individual wishes, we can take into account the overall interests of society and the population structure, and adopt flexible measures and policies to stimulate fertility to ensure social stability and development.