Beijing: The government has allowed couples in China to give birth to up to three children. The significant change in the Chinese government’s policy is based on the realization that the country is declining in population. Earlier, China introduced a law of two children in a family to keep the population in check.
The important policy was approved at a Politburo meeting chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Chinese state news agency reported.
China, currently the world’s most populous country, has a population of about 1.4 billion. China has previously introduced a one-child policy to curb its rapidly growing population. With this came a sharp decline in population growth. But China, which lifted the policy in 2016, has been revising the policy to allow married couples to have up to two children. But due to the heavy cost of moving the family forward, many of the couples were reluctant to give birth to children. It is in this context that China’s policy change.
In addition to allowing people to give birth to more children, there will be special programs for the elderly in the country and plans to improve the quality of the population, the news agency reported. But it is not clear what these plans are.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that there has been a lukewarm response from Chinese social media to the government’s new policy. Many wondered if it was possible to raise even one or two children and then how to raise three children. One user commented that he was ready to raise three children for 50 million yuan.
This year saw the slowest population growth in China in a decade. Currently, China’s population growth rate is similar to that of Japan and Italy. There are reports that the government is also considering raising the pension age in view of the rising number of senior citizens.
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