In 2023, China's annual birth population will be 9.02 million and the death population will be 11.1 million, with a natural growth rate of -148‰。The main reasons for the decrease in the number of newborns in China are the delay in marriage and childbearing, the decline in fertility intention, and the decrease in the number of women of childbearing age. In the long run, it will create big problems. So, is there any way to solve the problem of low number of new births?
Here are my thoughts, probably just on paper.
1. The postponement of marriage and childbearing is related to the length of China's current school system.
Five years of elementary school, seven years of junior high and high school, four years of college, and generally 22 years old after finishing college. At the age of 22, I have been in school since kindergarten, which is equivalent to 19 years, and I know almost nothing about things outside school, even if I know some things in society, I know them indirectly, rather than experiencing and experiencing them personally. To be honest, when a person reaches the age of 22, most of the passion and sharpness of youth have been lost; After coming out of school, I faced the problem of finding a job, and after a few years, the job may be stable, and the family began to urge marriage, and there was basically no opportunity to experience the world in life.
Hong Mingji, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), suggested that the 12-year period of basic education be shortened to nine years.
Second, the decline in fertility willingness is directly related to the change of concept and the pressure of life.
To change the concept, we can only rely on education and publicity; To alleviate the pressure of life, it is necessary to come up with real preferential measures to encourage people to have children or have more children.
Take France, for example, which currently has the highest fertility rate among European countries. More than 60 years ago, France began to pursue an active population policy to encourage childbearing. The policy is reflected in family welfare, health insurance, employment, taxation and education policies.
For families with many children, France** has a financial subsidy program, the more children you have, the more subsidies you have: families with one child have a monthly subsidy of more than 150 euros; After the birth of the second child, families can also receive a minimum of 20 euros and a maximum of almost 300 euros, depending on their income. At the same time, families with many children enjoy priority in social welfare, housing allocation, etc., and enjoy subsidies for renting houses.
In terms of health insurance, women are 100 per cent reimbursed for medical expenses whenever they become pregnant. In addition, housewives with more than two children who do not have a job and health insurance can be provided free medical insurance by the Social Security Bureau.
In terms of employment, the law prohibits discrimination against pregnant women, once pregnant, employees cannot be dismissed, and companies must ensure that their jobs are suitable for their pregnancy. At the same time, the salary, position and position of the child shall be retained during the childbirth period. After giving birth, if the employee applies for long-term maternity leave or maternity leave, he or she must also retain his salary, position and position under the same conditions.
In terms of taxation, France implements a mechanism in which families with many children pay less tax, that is, families with the same income and more children pay a significant reduction in taxes.
In the area of education, there is also an education subsidy for families with many children.
As a result of these measures, France has the highest fertility rate in Europe.
However, we can learn from the experience of foreign countries, but also avoid falling into the pits they have stepped on.
The high fertility rate in France is mainly achieved through the vigorous introduction of foreign labor, and the highest fertility rate in France is immigrant rather than native. At present, the overall immigrant population in France is about 10, and the new immigrant population in Paris accounts for about 50. In this way, new problems may arise.
3. Whether the policy on adopting children can be appropriately relaxed.
There is also a situation around me, it is not that young people do not want to have children, but that they cannot have children for various reasons (some are physically not allowed, some have missed the best age to have children), and their education level and economic conditions are good. In this situation, it is not easy to think about ***. Can you think of a way?
Shortening the length of schooling, encouraging childbearing, and relaxing adoption policies are the only ways I can think of to increase the birth rate of newborns.