养孩国家化 (yănghái guójiāhuà): State support for raising children

Xue yaqing, 6, holds her brother on New Year's Day at No 1 Hospital in Xiangyang, Hubei province. The newborn is the second child of a couple from the city in Central China. [Photo/Xinhua]

Demographic scholar Yao Meixiong told the media recently that without the support of effective favorable policies that encourage people to have two children, the relaxing of the family planning policy to allow all couples to have two children may be underwhelming.

It was expected that there would be one million additional newborns in 2015 after the family planning policy was relaxed to allow couples either of whom is the only child to have a second child took effect in 2014. But the new born populationdid not increase; it reduced by about 320,000 instead.

That incident shows that Chinese people's fertility desire is ever-declining despite the easing of the family planning policy. And the main reasons are the high costs of raising children and the lack of necessary child support and facilities.

To comprehensively encourage families to give birth to two children, Yao suggests the authorities establish a new population mechanism that combines raising the child within the family along with government support to ease the burden of raising children.

The measures he suggests include extending compulsory education to the preschool period, providing subsidies to families that give birth to two children, extending the maternity leave period, and increasing investment in maternal and child healthcare.