Text |Shenzhen Special Zone Daily commentator Zhuang Yuan
During the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress this year, Zhang Qi, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of the Department of Internal Medicine of Jiaxing First Hospital, put forward suggestions for further optimizing birth support policies, including promoting the establishment of a parental leave system, establishing a hierarchical parental leave cost sharing mechanism, and incorporating inclusive childcare into basic public services.
In a series of discussions on supporting measures for childbirth, the establishment of parental leave has attracted wide attention. "Parental leave" is not the same as the existing maternity leave, but is a type of leave that is added specifically for parents of infants and young children. It focuses on solving the embarrassment of insufficient time for parents of infants and young children to take care of their babies, and encourages couples to share the responsibility of childcare, which is of positive significance for encouraging childbirth and alleviating social parenting anxiety.
At present, most provinces have added parental leave, which is generally granted between 5 and 15 days. However, from a practical point of view, parental leave looks good, but it is difficult to take it. Some employers either rejected the request or set thresholds, worried that the labor cost would be getting higher and higher, and many employees would not take the initiative to take a vacation because of the embarrassing reality of work pressure and no one taking a vacation.
Encouraging childbearing and reducing the burden of childbearing has always been a hot topic at the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress of the People Today, the NPC deputies' proposal to "implement parental leave for fathers" once again rushed to the hot search, causing heated discussions among netizens. Parental leave has attracted much attention, which truly reflects the public's concerns about childcare and guardianship problems, and at the same time, it also undermines everyone's expectations for building a childbirth-friendly society.
As the representative said, China is already facing the problem of aging and declining birthrate, and the number of people aged 60 and above has reached 2800 million, the number of births has declined for six consecutive years since 2017, and the proportion of the population aged 0-14 is 1795%。At the same time, the contradiction between women's employment and childbearing has intensified. There are many factors leading to the decline in the number of births, and one of the main reasons is the high employment pressure of women of childbearing age and the difficulty of childcare for infants and young children. It is urgent to solve the dilemma of women's childbirth and the problem of family guardianship, and vigorously create a childbirth-friendly society.
Childbirth is not only a matter within the family, but also a shared responsibility of the state and society. At present, the cost of childbirth and parenting between the ages of 0 and 3 is mainly borne by employers and women, and a benign interaction between society, families and employers has not yet formed a benign interaction between the employer, the society, the family and the employer. In the long run, it will inevitably aggravate women's employment discrimination and reduce women's fertility willingness and behavior. It can be said that the key to solving the problem can be said to be the key to solving the problem while effectively reducing the labor cost of the enterprise unit and minimizing the worries of parents taking leave to raise children through the lever of the system.
From this point of view, it is necessary to establish and improve a reasonable sharing mechanism for the cost of childbirth and parenting, which should be borne by multiple subjects, and strengthen social mutual support. It is necessary to establish a sharing mechanism for multiple responsibility entities such as enterprises, maternity insurance, fiscal and taxation policies, and explore flexible work systems and vacation methods; It is necessary to create a social culture of family-friendly and shared family responsibilities between husband and wife, promote the establishment of a parental leave system for fathers, and urge husbands and wives to share family responsibilities; It is necessary to vigorously develop inclusive childcare services and strengthen public services and guarantees.