Cause of china's one child policy (argumentative ) - Research Paper Example

Thus given the situation, experts now believe that the system should be eased with the introduction of the two child policy as it will help in rebalancing the population and also relieve the people of the stress associated with childbearing. The one child policy in China, which was launched in 1979, was framed keeping in mind the social and economic consequences of rapid population growth. While family planning services were available in China since 1953, the increase in death rate resulted in a 2.

8% rise in population growth rate by the 1970s. This expansion of the population was considered by some as a major strength for the country. This was echoed by several leaders such as Mao Zedong who believed that China would become stronger if there were more people. This perception prevented the inception of several voluntary family planning programs in the country (Potts; Kane and Choi). However the rapid increase in the population put a strain on the government which resulted in the inclusion of contraception and abortion services both to the urban and rural population in the fourth five year plan of 1970.

While these policies helped to curb the growing birth rate the government set a growth rate target of 1% for 1980. This target was however, difficult to achieve and by the year 1982 the census revealed that the country had around 1 billion people. This resulted in the inclusion of stricter policies by which the government aimed to control the population rate to about 1.2 billion by the year 2000. This lead to the introduction of the one child policy in the year 1979 as many economic experts such as Deng Xiao-ping believed that the economy and living standards of the country would not improve with a growing population rate (Kane and Choi).

The one child policy was implemented by the Family Planning Commission of China according to which parents in the urban areas should limit their number of children to one while those in the rural regions were allowed to have two children in case the first was a girl (Carroll). With the introduction of the one child policy the government initially aimed to achieve a growth rate target of l.2 billion by 2000 through elimination of the birth of the third and subsequent children within a family and also it hoped that 30% of the couples would be willing to forgo their second child.

Many considered that sacrificing the second and third child would be vital for the welfare of future generations. Parents were urged to opt for a one child family by providing them incentives such as preferential access to schools, housing and health services (Kane and Choi). At the same time those with larger families were burdened with financial levies on the additional children by increasing their taxes and cutting down access to free healthcare and were also under constant social pressure that also affected their careers (Kane and Choi; Carroll).

In larger cities such as Shanghai many couples had already opted for the one child family as the pressure for both partners to work full-time and the demands of growing household restricted urban couples to have a single child. The adoption of the policy in the rural setting was difficult as aging farmers and peasants had to depend on their children during their old age. As daughters were given away in