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In an effort to increase the nation’s declining birth rate, China will begin pilot initiatives in more than 20 locations to promote a “new-era” culture of marriage and motherhood.
The schemes to encourage women to marry and have children will be launched, according to the state-backed Global Times, which is a national organisation in China that carries out the government’s demographic and fertility measures.
The programmes’ main goals, according to the Times, are to encourage marriage, childbearing at the right age, encouraging parents to share childrearing duties, and reducing exorbitant “bride prices” and other archaic traditions.
The pilot includes Handan in China’s Hebei province as well as the manufacturing centre Guangzhou. Last year, according to the Times, the group already begun initiatives in 20 locations, including Beijing.
According to demographer He Yafu, “society needs to guide young people more on the concept of marriage and childbirth.”
The programmes are part of a flurry of initiatives that Chinese regions are launching to encourage individuals to have kids, including tax breaks, housing aid, and free or discounted schooling for having a third child.
China’s strict one-child policy, which was in place from 1980 to 2015, is to blame for many of the demographic issues that have led India to overtake China as the world’s most populated country. Three children are now the maximum allowed.
Political advisers to the government said in March that single and unmarried women should have access to egg freezing and IVF treatment, among other services, to increase the nation’s fertility rate. This was in response to concerns about China’s first population decline in 60 years and the country’s rapid ageing.
The cost of child care and having to halt their employment have discouraged many women from having more children or any at all, and gender prejudice remains a significant barrier.
