China will launch pilot programmes in more than 20 cities to cultivate a “new-era” marriage and childbearing culture in order to foster a child-friendly environment, the latest step by officials to increase the country’s dropping birth rate.
The “new-era” marriage and childbearing culture programmes will be launched in China by the Family Planning Association, a national entity that administers the government’s population and fertility regulations, according to the state-backed Global Times on Monday.
The programmes’ focus is on encouraging marriage, having children at acceptable ages, encouraging parents to share child-rearing responsibilities, and reducing excessive “bride prices” and other archaic conventions, according to the Times.
Guangzhou, China’s manufacturing powerhouse, and Handan, in China’s Hebei region, are among the cities participating in the pilot. According to the Times, the group already initiated programmes in 20 locations, including Beijing, last year.
“Society needs to guide young people more on the concept of marriage and childbirth,” demographer He Yafu told the New York Times.
The schemes are part of a flurry of measures being implemented by Chinese provinces to encourage individuals to have children, including tax breaks, housing subsidies, and free or subsidised education for having a third child.
From 1980 until 2015, China enforced a strict one-child policy, which was at the core of many of the demographic issues that allowed India to become the world’s most populated country. Since then, the maximum has been raised to three children.
Concerned over China’s first population reduction in six decades and increasing ageing, the government’s political experts urged in March that single and unmarried women have access to egg freezing and IVF treatment, among other services, in order to raise the country’s fertility rate.
Many women have been put off having more children, or having any at all, due to the cost of child care and having to give up their employment, with gender discrimination remaining a major barrier.
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