China set to advocate ‘one couple, two children’ policy

 

China, the world’s most populous nation, is set to amend its controversial family planning policy to allow couples to have two children to counter shrinking work force and an rapidly ageing population which has already reached 212 million in 2014

The number of people aged 60 or over in China reached 212 million at the end of 2014, accounting for 15.5 per cent of the country’s population, with the number of disabled elderly people approaching 40 million, statistics from the National Health and Family Planning Commission showed

“The State advocates that one couple can give birth to two children,” a draft amendment submitted for review at the bi-monthly session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee said, amid reports that not many of 100 million couples who could benefit from the new policy were interested to have a second child in view of growing costs of bringing up an additional kid.

The draft came after the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee decided in October to give the go ahead for the universal two-child rule, which will replace the decades-long “one couple, one child” policy.

Li Bin, head of National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), said the CPC’s decision was made to adapt to the transition of China’s population from young to old currently underway.

In order to implement the decision, the top legislature must amend the family planning law which took effect in 2002

Note

Under the current law, citizens who marry late and delay childbearing may be entitled to longer nuptial and maternity leaves. Couples who volunteer to have only one child in their lifetime enjoy rewards