An Evaluation on One-Child Policy of China - Essay Example

A blessing or a curse: an evaluation on one child policy of China by The of the The of the School (University) The City and State where it is located The Date A blessing or a curse: an evaluation on one child policy of China Step B To begin with, it may be logical to pay attention to the advantages of One Child Policy. Thus, it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that the government implemented this initiative very responsibly: it did not only make people to restrict their family size, but also provided them with the necessary care, contraception and training. The statistic shows that expenditures on health care sector rose from 580 million dollars to 2,400 million dollars after the introduction of the policy in question (Crabbe, 2014, p. 50). That is why might point out that this initiative had a positive influence on health care system in general. Another point that should be mentioned is that thanks to One Child Policy China was able to cope with national poverty rather effectively. Indeed, at the present moment per cent of the population that is recognized to experience absolute poverty is around 6% while it used to be more than 12% ("Poverty & Equity", 2015). This means that the introduction of the policy in question had a beneficial effect on the society in terms of reduction of poverty. This might be explained by the fact that the government was able to allocate the necessary resources and distribute them correctly. However, there is no doubt that One Child Policy features a considerable number of negative aspects. The first one and the most obvious that is that it can not be called a successful one as the population of the country did not decrease or it is not that little as it was expected. Indeed, in 1980 which might be seen as the first year of this policy the population of China was only 980 million people; however, in 2014 it was as large as 1,350 million people ("Population", 2015). So, in almost thirty years time the government was not able to cope with the size of the population. Another indication of the ineffectiveness of the policy in question is the fact that the characteristic that the government wanted to change did change, but it did not have the desired effect. Indeed, if one analyzes the goals that were set by the policy, one might conclude that it achieved them very well. Thus, the population growth did drop dramatically. For example in 1980 it was around 1.3 while in 2014 it was estimated to be 0.5 ("Population growth", 2015). Nevertheless, over the end of the previous century China was not only able to reach the mark of 1 billion people, but in so little time as a decade and a half reach one third of another billion. The next negative impact of One Child Policy is the distorted sex ratio in the population. Nowadays it is estimated that the sex ratio at birth in China is 1.11 to 1 while in the age group of 15-24 it is 1.13 to 1 ("Sex ratio", 2015). This evidence does not look dramatic, especially since 1.11 is so close to 1. Nevertheless, when these data is projected onto the population, it becomes evident that there is a tremendous gap between the number of man and the number of women. A good example is the patterns of marriage in the contemporary Chine. It has been found that there are 55 million of extra bachelors in this country (Tsai, 2012). There is no doubt that this changes the entire idea of marriage: since there is the excess of man, women are able to make a choice; however, they are not going to do that since they were taught to be passive in the process of building a relationship. The next dimension of the negative side of One Child Policy is the emergence of the so called Four – Two – One problem. This term refers to the situation when a common family consists of a single child, two parents and four grandparents (Newman & Harper, 2004). Since life expectancy is relatively long in China grandparent are often alive and need the support of their parents. This results in the situation that parents have to earn money to support their children and their parents. Gradually, as they become older a child understands that the entire financial burden will soon be placed on him or her. With this in mind, one should also pay attention to another process that happens simultaneously because of four – two – one problem. As every family produces only one child, the number of people who join the work force decreases each year. The researchers argue that the contemporary volume of work force has decreased by 35 percent (Enos, 2014). In other words, it is not that the number of older people who need the support of the young increases, it is the number of younger people who are required to support the old decreases. There is no doubt that is this tendency is maintained, the economic life of the country will be destroyed. Finally, the introduction of One Child Policy has a rather surprising negative effect on children. Thus, since they do not have any siblings, the children are able to enjoy all the attention of their parents which results in the fact that they become the so called “little emperors” or “little suns” (Goh, 2011). There is nothing wrong with the pampering of little children; however, having accustomed to such treatment, they are rather surprised by the high demands and expectations that they parents set forth as they grow old. Indeed, there is a relatively short period of time when the children are able to enjoy life as afterwards they parents become very demanding. For example, it was found that parent expect their children to be academically successful as young as in the age of four, five and six (Jing, 2000). This is the threshold when they experience the initial pressure. As the children grow older, they are thought to perform even better, joining the harsh competition so that they could acquire a good job in order to support the parents and the grandparents in the future. Step C Having considered the positive and negative sides of One Child Policy, one is able to come to the following conclusion: the government of China should abandon the policy because it does more harm than good to the state. So, this section will discuss the probably consequences that the country in question will experience in case it abandons it. First of all, the population of China is likely to increase. Of course, there will be no surprise in the world as this country has always been known as the most populous state. However, the most important point that should be stated with this regard is that it will not allow its close competitor, namely India to occupy the first place. Indeed, according to the projections, if One Child Policy is implemented further in 2050 the population of India will be over 1.6 billion people (Kochhar, 2014). There is no doubt that the size of the population is not the competition that each of these countries is willing to win; nevertheless, if China stops the policy in question it will ensure its leadership as the most populous country. It is quite probable that by 2050 the population of China will be around 1.6 billion as well in this case. However, as more people will live in the society, the number of those living in poverty will increase once again. The statistic shows that the Chinese government was able to decrease the numbers from 835 thousand people to 208 thousands over the course of the policy (Kochhar, 2014). However, if it is abandoned it is quite natural that the population of the poor people will increase. There is no doubt that it will not rise dramatically; however, the society will have to adjust to the growing number of the people that need distribution of financial funds. Indeed, the successful battle against poverty in China can be explained by the fact that the rate of development of economy was partially harmonized with the rate of population growth. In other words, there is a specific number of people that China can afford, so to speak, and that will live above poverty. However, if this number is exceeded, those extra people will live in poverty. This approach is nothing new in Economics: it simply refers to the peculiarities of interaction of the levels of production as well as distribution of income among the population. The next important consequence of elimination of One Child Policy is the increase of the number of brides that will exist in the society. Indeed, at the present day female girls are not killed at birth; however, if a couple gave birth to a boy, they are not allowed to have another child. Of course, there are several exceptions from this rule. However, in the majority of cases, the only child in a family is a boy. This means that if the policy in question is no longer adhered to, the number of female children will increase significantly. This, in its turn, will also affect the sex ratio of the work force. At the present moment, there are more men on the labour market than women. So, if the families will be allowed to give birth to girls after they have produced a boy, the girls will grow old enough to enter the work force. Therefore, there is a need for positions that are more suitable for women. This is likely to have a significant effect on the economy in general as at the present moment the economic world is dominated by men in virtually any sense. Another essential consequence that should be taken into consideration is the reduction of the pressure that the children are exposed to. There is no doubt that it is logical to have high expectation for the only child; however, the latter needs to live his or her own life as well. If a family is allowed to have two or more children than the responsibility for supporting parents and grandparents will be shared among the children equally. As a result, they will have to work less in order to help their family and will have more time for themselves. In addition to that, the parents will not be so academically demanding. Indeed, it is not logical to pressure a child of four years old to be a rigorous student. If there are several children in a family, the parents will know that they do not have to put all their hope into one child and will let them enjoy the childhood for a while. Of course, the children will no longer be able to behave as “little emperors”. Nevertheless, they will experience the normal childhood which is something that they have been deprived of. It is quite understandable that this will have a beneficial effect on the formation of their personality. Finally, the elimination of One Child Policy is likely to change the structure of a family. Thus, four – two – one model will become history and the number of children will be significantly bigger. It is quite possible that four- two three model will be the most widely spread. This is likely to change the way parents and grandparents interact with their children. For example, where there was one child, the entire family focused their love on one; however, as there are two or three children, some of them are likely to become a favourite and steal some part of attention. With this regard, one should also note that the number of people who enter the work force will increase. One would make no mistake suggesting that China has never experienced a shortage of the workers; nevertheless, it was found that the policy in question would gradually eliminate this disadvantage. In other words, in case China abandons this policy, it will also get rid of the negative economic phenomenon that it could face in the distant future. Therefore, the consequences of elimination of One Child Policy will change the face of the Chinese society, but these changes are beneficial. References Crabbe, M 2014, Myth-busting Chinas numbers: Understanding and using Chinas statistics, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke. Enos, O 2014, Chinas Self-Created Demographic Disaster Is Coming, Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/chinas-self-created-demographic-disaster-coming-11353 Goh, E 2011, Chinas one-child policy and multiple caregiving raising little suns in Xiamen, Routledge, New York, NY. Hillebrand, E 2015, Poverty, growth and inequality over the next 50 years. Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2280e/i2280e04.pdf Jing, J 2000, Feeding Chinas little emperors: Food, children, and social change, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA. Kochhar, R 2014, 10 projections for the global population in 2050, Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/02/03/10-projections-for-the-global-population-in-2050/ Newman, D & Harper, D 2004, Sociology: Exploring the architecture of everyday life (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. Population 2015, Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL Population growth 2015, Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.GROW/countries/1W?page=6&display=default Poverty & Equity 2015, Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/country/CHN Sex ratio 2015, Retrieved May 12, 2015, from https://www.cia.gov/Library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2018.html Tsai, T 2012 China Has Too Many Bachelors. Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2012/china-census-excess-males.aspx Read More