One-Child Policy (Ying Han)
After the week's CID lesson about the one-child policy in China, a one-word question ran through my mind. WHY? Just why?
Of course, after reading more about the topic, I understand that the Government of China has their own reasons for coming up with this movement. One of them is for population control. However, if they keep up with this 'One-Child Policy' law for too many generations, it is going to affect the population way too much. The number of children born are dwindling rapidly each year, hence, in the future, there will be less adults, thus leading to less manpower and in the end, it would affect the whole of China's economy. In the present day, the economy in China is relatively stable, well, at least in the more modern areas of it. Hence, parents would be able to earn enough to support themselves, their own parents and maybe even more than one child. However, since there is this 'One-Child Policy' law in existent, they probably have some money to save, assuming they do not splurge on unnecessary things. Therefore, they will be able to support themselves until they grow old and their children need not provide so much for them. After saying so much, my point to make is that a child supporting so many generations of family might not be the biggest issue for the time being. Of course, it might be in the future. Now, however, it's not just China's population as a whole that is taking a dip, it's China's population of females. There is, or once was, a law related to the 'One-Child Policy' that stated that a family is only allowed to give birth until they get a baby boy, but still have only a maximum of two children. Since some families get a baby boy at their first try, they are not allowed to give birth to any more babies, even with intentions of having a girl. Ergo, as there is a fair share of such families, China's population of females is declining, not too quickly but bit by bit, 'till things are getting slightly out of hand. The ratio of males to females being born in China have a relatively large difference of 17%. This also means that in the future, there would be less women to give birth and help keep China's population stable.
In Singapore, we also have our own system of controlling our country's population. However, ours don't come in the form of preventing and punishing births. As a matter of fact, ours encourages births. The birth rate in Singapore is getting lower every year, just like in China. Unlike China's though, our government is extremely worried about this situation, thus coming up with a scheme called the 'Baby Bonus' scheme. This scheme rewards families who have three or more children, encouraging them to have more of them. I feel that this is a great way to drive families to have more children just because it does no harm to human beings. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, you won't get punished, you just won't get rewarded, and that's okay. If you're desperately in need of money, there are other schemes set up by the government to help you.
I believe that every family has the right to give birth to as many children as they want. However, of course, there will be limitations. We may not have enough resources for everyone. However, every birth is a new life, and every human being is a form of life. Life is precious. We only live it once. It should not be controlled too much. Hence, in conclusion, policies, laws and rewards are extremely political issues. Even though we might still be too young to change all of these things, we are still entitled to our own opinion of what we understand of the situation. Therefore, it is extremely important to see and observe the world with our own eyes, and think about what happens and why it happens. In the case of the 'One-Child Policy' law, I personally believe that it should not exist. However, there may be things I do not understand enough about that is related to this policy. Ergo, I may not be able to do anything, just speak my opinion.
A poster on the 'One-Child Policy' in China.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
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