Effects of One-Child Policy in China - Essay Example

Effects of One Child Policy in China Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping implemented the One Child Policy in the year 1979. The goal of its implementation was to limit the growth of population in Communist China. Although originally it was implemented as a temporary way of controlling the population growth, yet the policy is still in place even after more than three decades have passed. One Child Policy restrains people in urban areas or cities from having from than one child. However, in rural areas, the rules are not quite as stringent as they are in the cities. Couples in rural areas may have another child if the first child was born a girl. In the urban areas, couples having their only child as a girl have to put a lot of pressure and burden on that girl. Having their only daughter as their one and only supporter, parents are reluctant to get their daughter married well in time. So the effects of the One Child Policy are far-reaching and negative for the most part. Couples breaking the law are imposed serious implications upon by the government. Many women in China have undergone abortion under the effect of the One Child Policy. Rising rates of these forced abortions do not cast a good impression of China on the rest of the world. “Tales of abuses—including of forced late-term abortions—still surface every now and then, and they reverberate much more loudly and angrily in the age of social media” (“Why is China”). One Child Policy is not very popular among the people of China at large and many have been waiting for it to be lifted for a long time. The population of China is the largest in the world, which makes it easy for one to understand the significance of implementation of such a policy. One Child Policy is estimated to have limited the growth of population in China of 1.3 billion by up to 300 million in a matter of only first two decades (Shah). This has sure helped in the process of development and modernization in China as the country increasingly indulged in trade with the world. However, even though China has benefited from the growth rates of 10 per cent per year and has welcomed the effects of globalization, continued implementation of the One Child Policy can prove detrimental for the economic progress of the country in the long run. China is an emerging economy and stands just behind the US. Continuation of the One Child Policy would limit the workforce in China and there would be fewer tax-payers for the government. For a country with a large ageing population, this could prove detrimental. It becomes difficult for the government to provide facilities and privileges for an ageing population with insufficient number of workers contribution to such public services as health care. The sociological effects of One Child Policy are also not very favorable. There is typically extended family structure in China. Each child in China bears the responsibility of supporting two parents as well as four grandparents in addition to his/her family. Since they have only one child, parents associate very high hopes with their child. Not all children manage to fulfill the hopes, desires, and dreams of their parents. Hence, when their child cannot get admission in a good university or he/she cannot join a respectable profession, parents are depressed and disappointed. The single child has to make a lot of sacrifices and compromises to fulfill the desires of his/her parents. The single child has to choose the carrier selected for him/her by his/her parents. Likewise, from carrier to job and accommodation, the single child cannot decide about anything independently. A 32-year-old woman, Ge Yang from Beijing shares the relentless and unflinching attention she got from her parents that changed her life, “If my parents had had other children, they would have paid less attention to me, in which case I might have spent more time and energy doing things that interest me. Chinese parents of my parents generation like to plan life for their children… I think if I had another chance, I might choose to work in the tourism industry, or live in another city…But as a single child, I have the responsibility to look after my parents. I couldnt leave my city. I need to be with them. This is something I cannot change” (Yang cited in Hatton). One Child Policy understandably does not leave any room for siblings. One’s bond with siblings is very important for healthy development psychologically, socially, and emotionally. In a developing country like China, where both male and female parents have to work in order to be able to afford a decent living, the single child has to spend a lot of time alone. Lack of siblings is a major deprivation in such a lifestyle. Life gets boring for children when they have no sibling to share their things with or even to quarrel with. It is very traumatic for the parents to lose their only child in an accident that they spent whole life raising. The grief and sorrow experienced by parents who lose their child because of illness or accident or any reason cannot be explained in words. Not only they lose their child, but their generation essentially comes to an end with the death of that child. Parents in the Chinese society are not very enthusiastic about having their child join the armed forces. They cannot bear the sorrow associated with losing their only child in a battle. Family planning is a very personal matter. It is, indeed, upsetting for a couple to have the interference of governmental policies in such a personal matter. One Child Policy particularly becomes very emotionally upsetting when the couple has the want or desire for a son or a daughter. When a daughter is born in a family where the parents wanted their only child to be a son, parents are not satisfied and their dissatisfaction might reflect in poor upbringing of their daughter. The same can be said for couples that wanted a daughter but had a son instead. Parents in the Chinese society generally prefer having their only child as a son. To ensure that their achieve this, many Chinese women visit ‘back street’ clinics for determining their child’s sex, although the practice is illegal in China. However, women tend to benefit from the growing number of such clinics in China. China has seen a gender imbalance because of increase in the female fetus abortions. The National Bureau of Statistics’ Census data noted that in the year 2011, the gender ration in China for every 100 baby girls was 117.78 new-born boys (Shah). The problem is even aggravated in the rural areas of China. For example, at the Two Rivers Primary School in the Anhui Province, there are two girls and ten boys in the year one class. Gender imbalance has drastic social consequences. Decline in marriage rate is possibly a consequence of gender imbalance as there are lesser partners of one gender than the other. In the case of China, gender imbalance is too significant and the amount of disparity in the number of male and female population is great. Things become all the more difficult and complicated when the religious teachings conflict with the policies of the government. Religions like Islam encourage their followers to have many children. Followers of such religions find themselves imprisoned in their own country when they have to respect such policies as the One Child Policy. In order to fully practice their religion, and live life on their own terms, people have no choice but to migrate to some other land. Losing ties with a country that they have been living in for generations and where they belong is not easy. Chinese people are generally very patriotic and being in such situations where they have to choose between their freedom and country puts them in a state of dilemma. The economic effects of the One Child Policy are also quite evident. Since parents in China have just one child to raise, affordability for quality education has increased. Also, parents feel motivated to get their child highly educated because he/she has to bear the financial burden in the future as the only supporter of the family. As a result of this, the new singletons of China are more educated compared to the generations before them. However, along with this positive effect of increase in the literacy rate, increase in the cost of education has surfaced as a very negative effect. In the past, parents had the tendency to educate just one of their children in the school. After the implementation of the One Child Policy, this focused pressure has been borne by each single child from the two parents. In spite of the rising cost of education, the living standard in China has considerably improved under the effect of the One Child Policy. Since the policy has helped reduce the population of China, government has lesser young people to provide food, education, healthcare and recreational facilities, and job opportunities for. Accordingly, Chinese people today spend a more modern and resourceful life as compared to their older generations. While the One Child Policy has played an important role in raisin the living standards in China, the policy has not proven effective in controlling the environmental problems of China. In fact, the One Child Policy might have caused more harm to the environment as a result of the higher rates of consumption resulting from the higher standard of living. As a result of the decrease in population caused by the One Child Policy, almost a quarter of the total population of China has become part of the middle class that has inevitably led to increased consumption of food and energy in China and has been the cause of a host of detrimental effects on the environment. Factors related to the economic growth of China have caused drastic and irreversible changes manifested through lung-searing smog, massive fish kills, and denuded landscapes. The colossal expansion of industries in China has caused depletion of the natural resources and has heavily polluted the streams and skies. China’s consumption of the coal supply is as much as half of its total consumption in the world. Consumption of coal is the cause of emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which in turn causes global warming. The experience of China reveals the way rising consumption coupled with modest population growth rates magnify the effect of each other on the planet. In spite of the fact that the reserves of China are the third-largest in the world, it is trying to extend to the world for more. China has become the largest importer of coal in the world, drawing it mainly from Australia and Indonesia, and these imports are expected to double by the year 2015 (Weiss). These trends seem risky to the climate scientists who emphasize upon the need to cut down the global emission of carbon dioxide to half by the year 2050 in order to deter a potentially catastrophic increase in the temperature (Weiss). Understanding the effects of the One Child Policy, its relative ineffectiveness in solving the major issues of the country, the perceived risks associated with it, and the general dissatisfaction of the people of China with this policy, Chinese government has a tendency of relaxing this policy. “Now those enforcers will be processing a different kind of paperwork: couples where one parent is an only child (as opposed to both) will be allowed to have a second child” (“Why is China”). This change, if implemented, would be a radical change in the population control policy of China. While it surface, it seems to be capable of aggravating the problem of population growth in China, yet in reality its effects can be estimated to be more positive than negative. Waiving the One Child Policy would help China increase the level of satisfaction of its citizens, create a larger workforce of skilled labor and better healthcare facilities. Greater skilled workforce also means that China would be able to benefit from the remittance sent by the skilled Chinese labor abroad. To conclude, One Child Policy can be said to have mixed effects on the Chinese society, but the effects are biased toward negative when visualized in the larger spectrum. One Child Policy has helped raise the standard of living for the people of China. While higher standard of living means provision of more facilities to the people, it also means consumption of more resources. Today, China has become the biggest consumer of coal all over the world which is why it raises significant environmental challenges not only to itself but also to the rest of the world. The sociological effects of One Child Policy have not been very favorable. Generally, people are dissatisfied with this policy because they see it as an unnecessary intrusion of the government into their personal matters. Having just one child deprives people from having their ideal family. The single child bears a lot of responsibility toward the entire family and things can go really complicated if that single child fails to fulfill his responsibilities, or even unrealistic desires of the parents. To help China solve its internal and external problems, China should take serious measures to control its environmental pollution. This can be achieved by relying on alternate and more environment-friendly sources of energy than coal. China should remove the One Child Policy as soon as possible before it creates a serious shortage of skilled labor in the near future. Works Cited: Hatton, Celia. “No siblings: A side-effect of Chinas one-child policy.” BBC News Magazine. 22 Nov. 2013. Web. 4 May 2014. . Shah, Priya. “Chinas One Child Policy Tragedy.” Huffington Post. 21 Nov. 2012. Web. 4 May 2014. . Weiss, Kenneth R. “Chinas population and economy are a double whammy for the world.” Los Angeles Times. 22 July 2012. Web. 5 May 2014. . “Why is China relaxing its one-child policy?” The Economist. 10 Dec. 2013. Web. 5 May 2014. . Read More