Maintaining a low birth rate will remain a difficult task for
some time in the world's most populous country, said Zhao Baige,
vice minister of the National Population and Family Planning
Commission. She said that a number of other problems are appearing
that require research into population strategy and immediate
responses.
Zhao made the remarks at a press conference held by the
Information Office of the State Council Thursday.
The commission has put in place nationwide the Girl Care Project
to teach people to abandon their traditional preference for male
children. They hope gradually to normalize the nation's unbalanced
birth ratio, which is currently 117 boys to 100 girls born. A
normal newborn sex ratio is 103 to 107 boys for 100 girls.
Additionally, the central government is starting a pilot program
in some rural areas. It will give 1,200 yuan (US$144) annually to
parents who have two girls, one-child parents and those with a
disabled child, when they reach 60 years of age. The project is
scheduled to be expanded nationwide next year.
This project will also help China set up a comprehensive social
assurance system to help one-child families better look after
parents in an aging society. In 2000, China had 88.3 million people
over 65, who accounted for 7 percent of the total population.
In rural areas, the majority of the elderly parents still depend
on support from their children instead of a national social welfare
system.
In keeping the birth rate low, China has employed a multivariate
family planning policy for the past 30 years, rather than uniformly
applying the one-child policy. Generally, urban families can only
have one child; rural parents whose first child is a girl can have
another. Ethnic minority? mothers are permitted to have three
or more children. For example, in the Tibet Autonomous Region,
there are no birth limitations at all, Zhao said.
The government does not force people to cooperate in terms of
contraception for family planning, but fully respects their human
rights, said Zhao. China has 240 million women of childbearing age,
83 percent of whom use various contraception methods for family
planning. It would be unimaginable for the government to enforce
family planning on so many people, Zhao pointed out.
The induced abortion rate in China is 28 percent, slightly over
the 25 percent of the United States.
Women have various options in contraception. About 48 percent
use intrauterine devices, 36 percent have tubal ligations and the
majority of the rest take oral contraceptives or have partners who
use condoms.
The migrant population is another enormous problem, with
somewhere between 120 million and 140 million people -- one-tenth
of the entire population -- on the move. Action is being taken to
ensure they are afforded equal rights in employment, insurance,
health care and children's education, especially in the larger
cities.
The family planning commission's 120,000 reproductive health
technicians and more than 1 million women volunteers for family
planning will play a vital role in preventing the HIV virus from
spreading through sexual contact and mother-to-infant channels.
Remarkable progress has already been made in eight provinces, with
the help of the United Nations, in promoting the use of condoms and
stemming other channels of transmission.
China has 840,000 HIV/AIDS sufferers and is witnessing an annual
rate of increase of 32 percent, according to the Ministry of
Health.
(China Daily July 16, 2004)