Chinese Government Program:
One-child policy, official program initiated in the late 1970s and early 1980s by the central government of China, the purpose of which was to limit the great majority of family units in the country to one child each. The rationale for implementing the policy was to reduce the growth rate of China’s enormous population.
China has promoted the use of birth control and family planning since the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, though such efforts remained sporadic and voluntary until after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. By the late 1970s China’s population was rapidly approaching the one-billion mark, and the country’s new pragmatic leadership headed by Deng Xiaoping was beginning to give serious consideration to curbing what had become a rapid population growth rate. A voluntary program was announced in late 1978 that encouraged families to have no more than two children, with one child being preferable. In 1979, the policy was introduced and enacted on Sept, 25, 1980 to alleviate social, economic and environmental problems in China.The program was intended to be applied universally, although exceptions were made—e.g., parents within some ethnic minority groups or those whose firstborn was handicapped were allowed to have more than one child. It was implemented more effectively in urban environments, where much of the population consists of small nuclear families who were more willing to comply with the policy, than in rural areas, with their traditional agrarian extended families that resisted the one-child restriction. In addition, enforcement of the policy has been somewhat uneven over time, generally being strongest in cities and more lenient in the countryside. Methods of enforcement have included making various contraceptive methods widely available, offering financial incentives and preferential employment opportunities for those who comply, imposing sanctions (economic or otherwise) against those who violate the policy, and, at times (notably the early 1980s), invoking stronger measures such as forced abortions and sterilizations (the latter primarily of women).
The result of the policy has been a general decline in China’s fertility and birth rates since 1980. Demographers estimated that the policy averted at least 200 million births between 1979 and 2009. With the fertility rate declining and dropping below two children per woman in the mid-1990s. These gains have been offset to some degree by a similar drop in the death rate and a rise in life expectancy, but China’s overall rate of natural increase has declined.
One-child policy, official program initiated in the late 1970s and early 1980s by the central government of China, the purpose of which was to limit the great majority of family units in the country to one child each. The rationale for implementing the policy was to reduce the growth rate of China’s enormous population.
China has promoted the use of birth control and family planning since the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, though such efforts remained sporadic and voluntary until after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. By the late 1970s China’s population was rapidly approaching the one-billion mark, and the country’s new pragmatic leadership headed by Deng Xiaoping was beginning to give serious consideration to curbing what had become a rapid population growth rate. A voluntary program was announced in late 1978 that encouraged families to have no more than two children, with one child being preferable. In 1979, the policy was introduced and enacted on Sept, 25, 1980 to alleviate social, economic and environmental problems in China.The program was intended to be applied universally, although exceptions were made—e.g., parents within some ethnic minority groups or those whose firstborn was handicapped were allowed to have more than one child. It was implemented more effectively in urban environments, where much of the population consists of small nuclear families who were more willing to comply with the policy, than in rural areas, with their traditional agrarian extended families that resisted the one-child restriction. In addition, enforcement of the policy has been somewhat uneven over time, generally being strongest in cities and more lenient in the countryside. Methods of enforcement have included making various contraceptive methods widely available, offering financial incentives and preferential employment opportunities for those who comply, imposing sanctions (economic or otherwise) against those who violate the policy, and, at times (notably the early 1980s), invoking stronger measures such as forced abortions and sterilizations (the latter primarily of women).
The result of the policy has been a general decline in China’s fertility and birth rates since 1980. Demographers estimated that the policy averted at least 200 million births between 1979 and 2009. With the fertility rate declining and dropping below two children per woman in the mid-1990s. These gains have been offset to some degree by a similar drop in the death rate and a rise in life expectancy, but China’s overall rate of natural increase has declined.