China's One Child Policy - Term Paper Example

 China's One Child Policy Rising population is the major obstacle in the path of economic development for countries like China and India. A substantial portion of the global population is staying in Asia, especially in countries like China and India. China is the number one country and India is the number two country as far as population size in the world is concerned. Per capita income of people in these countries is extremely low even though these countries are developing rapidly than other countries in the world. In other words, the resources available per head in China and India are comparatively low to the global standards. Both China and India implemented family planning policies long time ago in order to control the soaring population size. India implemented a liberal family planning policy in which each family was advised to have one or two children whereas China implemented a stiff family planning policy in which each family was allowed to have only one child. In 1979, three years after Mao’s death, a one-child policy was introduced to reduce China’s burgeoning population. According to the policy as it was most commonly enforced, a couple was allowed to have one child. If that child turned out be a girl, they were allowed to have a second child. After the second child, they were not allowed to have any more children. In some places though couples were only allowed to have one child regardless of whether it is a boy or a girl. This policy is still in effect today. It is unusual for a family to have two sons1 Political, economic and sociological analysts are not unique in their opinion about the outcomes of China’s one child policy. At present, China is the most rapidly developing country in the world. It would have been a different story, had China failed to implement such strong measures to control its population rise. At the same time, one child policy brought several unexpected sociological outcomes also. Many families in China forced to have only female or male children even though they liked to have both male and female children. “Almost one in five human beings is Chinese (1.3 billion out of a global total of 6.7 billion), so the country matters immensely to human numbers”2. This paper analyses the pros and cons of China’s one child policy through economic, political, sociological and political perspectives. Pros of China’s one child policy Today the fertility level in China is around 1.7 children per woman. If China were to relax its one-child policy, then it’s reasonable to expect that fertility would rise. If fertility increased to replacement level of 2.1 (an increase of just under a half a child), which is not unreasonable given desired family size, the country’s annual number of births would increase by nearly 30%, or approximately five million additional births. By mid-century, this would add up to nearly a quarter-billion more Chinese than currently projected by the U.N. And given China’s impact on the environment, especially greenhouse gas emissions, this change of policy clearly portends a great deal3 The above statistics clearly show that China’s population growth is not only a problem to China, but also to the rest of the world as well. When population increases, more resources are needed sustain the lives of all the people. Industries and agriculture should be developed more to cater the needs of the increasing population. More activities in industrial and agricultural sector will result in more problems in the environment. It should be noted that emissions or run offs from industries, automobiles and agricultural land are causing severe damages to the environment. For example, in order to cater the food needs of the increased population, agricultural yields should be increased. Since total available faming land remains a constant, increased use of fertilizers, chemicals and pesticides is the only way to increase the yield. Increased use of fertilizers, chemicals and pesticides causes increased pollution of the air, water and land. It is difficult for China to restrict the environmental problems in its territory alone since water and air pollution can affect China’s neighbouring countries also. In short, China’s population size definitely has an indirect effect on global population and economic activities. Over the last fifty years, China has raised the standards of living by keeping growth rates down. Access to natural resources have increased dramatically since 1980. According to the State Family Planning Commission, coverage in tap water has increased from 84% to 94% in the last fifteen years. Furthermore, coverage of natural gas has risen from 16% to 73%. In addition, medical coverage has been extended to include birth insurance and workers compensation for mothers who follow China's birth policies (SFPC). In 1998, 19% of China's population used this policy. Other benefits include increases in average life expectancy from thirty five years in 1949 to seventy years in 1996, and decreases in infant mortality rates from two hundred per one thousand to thirty three per one thousand4 China’s one child policy definitely helped them to achieve tremendous economic growth. The story of China would have been different in the absence of a policy like one child. One child policy helped China to shift its focus more towards other critical matters rather than spending too much time on population reduction activities alone. One child policy helped China to correctly forecast the population growth in future years and also to estimate the resources needed for the future generation. Another advantage of China’s one child policy is the reduced healthcare cost. In most of the countries, governments spend a substantial portion of its revenue for ensuring adequate healthcare to its citizens. In less heavily populated countries, healthcare expenses would be lesser than that in heavily populated countries. If one child policy was not there, China’s healthcare expenditure could have been more than what it is today. As part of the implementation of one child policy, sex education has been given in Chinese schools to the students. Sex education not only helped Chinese teenagers to put a control on their crazy sex activities, but also it helped the teenagers to have awareness about the necessities of small family in future. Sex education also helped to reduce sex related violence in China. In other words, one child policy helped China to cultivate sound sex habits among teenagers. Since its inception reductions in Chinese fertility have reduced the country’s (and the world’s) population growth by some 250 million. These reductions in fertility have eased at least some of the pressures on communities, state, and the environment in a country which still carries one fifth of the world’s people5. Before the introduction of one child policy, as in the case of people in other countries, Chinese public also were leading crazy sex habits. Unwanted pregnancies, uncontrolled sex activities and premarital sex activities were common in China before the introduction of this policy. The introduction of one child policy forced the public to put more control over their sex habits. People started to use condoms more regularly in their sexual intercourses and therefore conception started to reduce. Many people have the illusion that Chinese population problem is the headache of China alone. However, it is a fact that Chinese population growth would have affected the entire world, if controlling measures were not enforced. The one child policy ensured good living standards to the existing population in China at present. China is the most rapidly developing country in the world at present and if one child policy was not implemented, China’s progress towards prosperity could have been slowed down. It is difficult for a country to ensure adequate education, employment, food, shelter etc if the population started to grow beyond its control. The death due to scarcity of food is very little in China at present; thanks to the one child policy. One child policy also helped to increase the life span of the people. At stated earlier, because of once child policy, government got more control in ensuring food and good healthcare to tis existing citizens. Availability of better foods, good healthcare and proper sheltering helped Chinese population to increase its life span. Cons of China’s one child policy India achieved stabilization without population control. As argued above, there are ways to achieve population-size sustainability without implementing a "one child" policy. There are alternative means. India is a good example of this, having achieved broadly similar declines in fertility without state coercion or occasional brutality6 Critics of one child policy cite India in order to prove that even without strong family planning policy; a heavily populated country can develop properly. It should be noted that India never enforced any laws to restrict the number of children a family can possess. At the same time, India encouraged its people to opt for smaller with one or two children. Moreover, India took strong actions against those who perform abortions to avoid having female children. In other words, as in the case of China, India never encouraged the destruction of female fetus and ensured social justice to all fetus irrespective of its gender. It should be noted that India is one of the rapidly developing economies in the world at present even though; they never enforced strong controlling measures on population growth. (One Child Policy (for Dummies): A brief history, facts, & FAQ) From the graph provided above, it is clear that India’s population growth achieved a steady growth whereas that of China faced lot of ups and downs in the past 500 years. While China tries to restrict its population growth, India is thinking in terms of better utilization of its huge manpower resources. India’s major strength at present is its huge manpower resources. Majority of the western countries which have shortage of manpower, are relying heavily on India’s ability to supply enough manpower resources. Not only in Western countries, but also in most parts of the world, Indians are working plenty in number. Because of the huge capital or foreign money earned by this huge overseas workforce, India is developing rapidly at present. On the other hand, China is struggling to find enough manpower resources even for their domestic works. According to a recent report, “China is already experiencing a shortfall of skilled workers starting from its southern economic powerhouse, the Pearl River delta, in 2004. About one-third of the region's employers said they had difficulties in recruiting enough people”7. Many people, especially the religious people believe that one child policy is a human right violation. In their opinion, children are the blessings of God and restrictions on conception are against all types of moral and natural laws. It is unethical to put restrictions on sex like divine activities which was given to the human by nature or God. Nature or God have its own mechanisms to control or regulate the population in this world and human should never interfere in it as per the beliefs of religions. Critics also argue that China never respected or believed in the freedom of the individuals. All the actions or policies implemented in China were aimed to achieve collective growth rather than individual growth. One child policy was also aimed to cater the needs of the nation rather than the needs of the individuals. Many of the individuals in the society who liked to have more children, failed to do so because of one child policy. One child policy forced the creation of many of the families without children. It is quite possible that the only child, faces unexpected death during the old age period of his/her parents. Under such circumstances, it is impossible for the parents to think of having one more child during their end of life period. If they were allowed to have two or more children during their youth period, they could have enjoyed the protection and care from the remaining child/children even if one faces death. It is the right of the parents to enjoy care from their children during their end of life period. One child policy denied such human rights to Chinese people. The main criticism of the policy, though, is undoubtedly its stimulus to sex discrimination. Faced with hard choices about overall numbers, the Chinese girl child has once again become expendable. Too many girls, if not aborted, face orphanages or second class lives concealed from the world and with reduced chances of schooling and health care. China has one of the world’s highest rates of suicide of women in the reproductive years. Increased pressure to produce the desired child, and a perceived reduction in the value of females, can only have exacerbated the problems of rural women8. Sex discrimination is huge in China compared to other countries in the world because of one child policy. Since parents have the option of having only one child, they will always look for baby boy. If they found their fetus happens to be a female, many of the Chinese females think of performing abortion to destroy the female fetus. The social status of the families with female children is less in China compared to the families with male children because of male domination visible virtually in every segment of Chinese social life. Thus illegal abortions, forced abortions, abuse of women who deliver female children etc are growing in China as a result of the one child policy. “To most Westerners, it’s incomprehensible that a government could legislate how many children a family can have—something most consider a fundamental human right”9. Naturally, it is the right of the human to decide upon the size of his family. One child policy is an intrusion into the natural rights of the people. One child policy and the subsequent activities of people in aborting female fetuses will result in gender imbalances in China. Nature has its own mechanisms to control the number of males and females in this world. Both excessive number of males and excessive number of females are not good for a country. Both males and females have their own roles in the society. It is impossible for a male to act as a substitute for female and it is impossible for a male to perform the duties of a female. For Example, it is impossible for a male to conceive and it is impossible for a female to conceive without a sexual intercourse with a male. In other words, both males and females have specific roles in this world and it is unethical to restrict the number of either the males or the females. Man is a social animal it is almost impossible for him to lead a lonely life. Holy Bible says that God created Eve in order to give company to the first human Adam. Socialization helps human to reduce his stress and agony. For example, psychologists advise us to talk freely with our friends and relatives to release the stress energy. One child policy forced the families to reduce the number of children and therefore proper socialization is not taking place in families. A child may reveal his agony and problems to his brother or sister; however, he may keep reservations while disclosing his feelings and emotions to the parents. The inability to reveal or release the mental stress will affect the mental development of the children. In other words, once child policy indirectly affects the emotional or psychological development of the people. According to a detailed study conducted by Mark R. Rosenzweig & Junsen Zhang in 2009; an extra child at parity one or at parity two, net of one component of birth-endowment effects associated with birth weight, significantly decreases the schooling progress, the expected college enrolment, grades in school and the assessed health of all children in the family. Despite the evident significant trade-off between number of children and child quality in China, the findings suggest that the contribution of the one-child policy in China to the development of its human capital was modest10 The above findings clearly suggest that the claims of advocates of one child policy are slightly exaggerated ones. The development of human capital or the quality of human capital from China is not so good when we compare it with the human capital from India or other developing countries. It is evident from the fact that majority of the outsourcing jobs are going to India rather than China even though China has a huge manpower bank. Conclusions It is impossible for China like heavily populated countries to develop properly without enforcing a control over the rapid population growth. At the same time, one child policy seems to be bit harsh when we consider the moral, natural and social laws. The freedom of a person to keep his family size of his own choice should be respected. At the same time, individuals should realise that expansion of their families beyond certain limits may not be good for the country’s interests. In short, it is better to reach a compromise between the individual needs and the social needs in order to control the growth of population effectively without causing much damages to the needs of the public. Bibliography Argument: "One child" is only partly responsible for reducing China's fertility rates. 2009. [Online]. http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Argument:_%22One_child%22_is_only_partly_responsible_for_reducing_China%27s_fertility_rates [Accessed on 12 October 2011]. Cook Jamie. Population Control and Consequences in China. 1999. [Online]. http://maps.unomaha.edu/peterson/funda/sidebar/chinapop.html [Accessed on 12 October 2011]. Debate: China "one child" policy. 2011. [Online]. http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Debate:China_%22one_child%22_policy [Accessed on 12 October 2011]. Hays Jeffrey. One-Child Policy In China. 2011. [Online]. http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=128&catid=4&subcatid=15 [Accessed on 12 October 2011]. Kane Penny and Choi Ching Y. Pros of one child policy. British Medical Journal. 1999 October 9; 319(7215): 992–994 [Online]. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1116810/ [Accessed on 12 October 2011]. One child policy pressurized by aging population. [Online]. http://www.china.org.cn/china/features/content_18320523.htm [Accessed on 12 October 2011]. One Child Policy (for Dummies): A brief history, facts, & FAQ. [Online]. http://www.china-mike.com/chinese-culture/society/one-child-policy/ [Accessed on 12 October 2011]. Rosenzweig Mark R. & Zhang Junsen. Do Population Control Policies Induce More Human Capital Investment? Twins, Birth Weight and China’s “One-Child” Policy. July 1 2009. Review of Economic Studies doi: 10.1111/j.1467-937X.2009.00563.x EBSCOhost Read More