China will now allow each couple to have three children and stipulates supportive measures for the new policy.
China’s top legislative body passed an amendment on Friday that allows each Chinese couple to have three children, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. The amendment to the Population and Family Planning Law was passed at a session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee.
The amendment cancels relevant restrictive measures, including fines for couples who violate the law to have more children than they are permitted.
It also stipulates supportive measures for the policy shift, including the exploration of parental leave and the establishment of more nursery facilities in public areas and workplaces.
The country will roll out more supportive measures in terms of finance, taxation, insurance, education, housing and employment, to ease the burden on families in terms of childbearing, childcare and education, according to the amendment.
According to Xinhua, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council adopted a decision in late June that unveiled details of the three-child policy and supportive measures encouraging births.
After ending its decades-old one-child policy in 2016, allowing couples to have two children, Beijing announced in May that it would relax the rules further and let couples have a third child, as it grapples with the challenges of a rapidly aging population.
It came after census data released in May showed that the number of new births fell for a fourth consecutive year – 12 million babies were born in 2020, down from 14.65 million the previous year. That was an 18 per cent year-on-year decline in the birth rate and the lowest number of births since the 1960s.
The law was amended to implement the principles of the fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee and the requirements of the decision, Xinhua reported quoting an explanatory document.
It’s hoped the decision, which has now been formally passed into law, will help encourage families to have more children and avert a looming demographic threat, said Xinhua news agency.
It comes just six years after the previous one-child policy was amended to allow families to have two children.
From the 1980s, the CCP imposed a one-child policy in a bid to slow population growth – a policy enforced with threats of fines or loss of jobs, leading to abuses including forced abortions.
While it did reduce birth rates, the policy led to a massive imbalance in the sex ratio, as a preference for sons led to a rise in sex-selective abortions for families expecting baby girls.
The Population and Family Planning Law was enacted in 2002 and revised in 2015 when China’s two-child policy was fully implemented.
The shift to the two-child policy has resulted in the births of over 10 million more second children in the country, according to census data.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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