Beginning this month, rural couples in southwest China's Yunnan
Province can receive a 1,000-yuan (US$120) bonus if they sign
an agreement to have just one child.
The move is a policy recently adopted by the province in an
attempt to bring the ever-swelling population in farming areas
under control.
In addition to the cash award, couples who promise to have only
a single baby will be granted an exemption from education fees and
bonus points will be added to their child's college entrance exam
scores.
Future cash benefits are offered as well, including a government
pension of up to 750 yuan (US$91) annually when they retire.
Yunnan Province Vice Governor Wu Xiaoqing said they have
earmarked 230 million yuan (US$28 million) to meet these
commitments.
According to Zhang Yuming, director of the Yunnan Provincial
Population and Family Planning Commission, the population of Yunnan
topped 43.8 million last year. Currently, the province sees a
yearly net increase of 500,000 people, or a birthrate of 9.8 per
1,000. That is about 5 per 1,000 higher than the national
average.
Of the 800,000 babies who arrive yearly in Yunnan, 730,000 are
born into rural families. More than half are from poverty-stricken
areas.
The steady rise in the rural population is attributed to a lack
of education among impoverished groups, Zhang said, and this growth
hampers the province’s development into a prosperous society.
During an eight-month trial of the program in more than 40
counties, more than 50,000 couples have picked up the certificate
awarded to them when they committed to having only one child.
The birthrate in the province is likely to be reduced by 10
percent for the first time. Wu said that by 2020, if the policy is
implemented as scheduled, more than 297,000 hectares of farmland
will have been saved and social expenditures will have been cut by
26.6 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion).
By then, more than 5.5 million potential births will have been
prevented.
(China Daily June 9, 2004)