The huge population growth over the past few decades has been a cause for concern globally. However, few countries have responded in the way China has. The population has put a tension on the limited resources of china. Many people are moving to the cities, leaving less people to farm the land. Not only is the population increasing, people are living longer, due to better acts in medicines. The population of 65 years old was only 66 million in 1990, and now is expected to grow 90 million by 2000, and 167 million by 2020.
The "one-child" policy is not a law, as most people think it is, "it is a policy enforced by the system of punishments" (www.cen.uci.edu~m-ulrich/eal/paper.html). Though there is a Marriage Law since 1980, insisting the practice of family planning, there is not one on the amount of children one family can have. The marriage Law encourages late marriages, late childbirths, one child per couple, and it helps space the time between children being born. Having one child is really encouraged, more in the urban areas than in the countryside. Women who are pregnant who have been authorized by the government, get birth coupons entitling them to have a child. Women who don't have their births authorized risk being punished by the government. Results for following the policy can include things like monthly financial rewards, extended maternity leave, increases land allocation, preferential treatment in education, housing and employment (www.cen.uic.edu/~m-ulrich/ealc/paper.html)
There are also punishments that go to the whole town, not just an individual, for not having a pregnancy authorized, which include Fines, forfeiture of government benefits,
demotion and discharge from government work.
There can be exceptions to the "one-child" policy, some families have had up to three children without a punishment. Families whose first child is unable to work, pregnancy that occurs after couples decided to adopt, and those returning over seas, are allowed to have a second child ( www.cen.uic.edu/~m-urich/ealc/paper.html).
I understand where the policy is coming from, and I agree to some extent of the policy. I think it is ridiculous to have lists of situations when a family can have a child, and I also don't agree with having punishments for having a child.
Many families are killing their new born babies,if they are not males. Hundreds are being drowned, smothered, and abandoned, by the family. The families keep trying to have children, with the hopes that their next will be a boy
One example of this is the story of Mei-ming , "no-name". At the age of two, she was tied to a chair, soaked in her urine, with dried mucus all over her nose and eyes, dyeing slowly and painfully, with no food or water. No one visits in her room, except for once each morning, just to see if she has died yet. Her parents abandoned her, and the orphanage is doing the same thing, abandoning her in the "death-room". The reason they are doing all this, is because she is a girl, and China has a strict Marriage Law and a violating "one-child" policy.
When a boy is born, there is a great celebration with fireworks, but when there is a girl born, there is silence. These infant girls are referred to as "maggots in the rice". (www.china-net/CCF95/ccf9546-3.html)
I'm strongly against all of this. The more I read about baby girls being left in rice fields, the angrier I get. I don't see how any person could leave their baby in a field to die, boy or girl, that could be an important person in the future. This is when I come in and say that the policy is not such a good idea, that the population may be going down, but not in a good way. I don't see why they can find something different to do with these children, I don't have any ideas, but I'm sure there could be something done differently.
The UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund had been giving money to China. To aid their failing resources $40 million was given in 1994, however when they determined that the money was going towards abortions, to further violate women and unborn girls, they stopped. Now it funds for the programs that they find are completely voluntary. The goals for the UNFPA are to provide health care that doesn't involve coercion, education for the citizens, and freedom to make choices without getting harassment.
Bibliography:
www.cen.uic.edu/~m-ulrich/ealc/paper.html
www.china-net.org/CCF95/ccf9546-3.html
www.iohk.com/userpages/nward/issues/meiming.html
www.honkong97.com.hk/news/article199706301 43557720.html