- Not so long ago, China had the distinct tag of being marked as the most populous country in the world. For a few decades, China headed the population race, closely followed by India, whose own numbers were perpetually on the ascendancy. Since the burgeoning population outpaced inadequate resources/infrastructure, India struggled for decades, suffering on several key economic metrics. On the other hand, China, with its economic might riding piggyback on the admirable manufacturing industries, simply went about consolidating its hold with tremendous urgency. What China did to address the growing population was to introduce curbs like the one-child policy, which was to prove counterproductive in the long run.
PC: NDTV
- That phase has made its presence felt in China what with the reproductive rate coming down drastically, paving the way for the country’s top leadership to introduce measures to encourage parents to produce more children. How life will come full circle is evident here, you see. As reported in the newspapers recently, the Communist leadership has introduced a hackneyed measure like taxing condoms ostensibly to encourage Chinese couples to have more kids. What should one even mention to such a measure where the Communist patriarchy can’t see women’s point of view? A tax on condoms? Seriously? Indeed, that’s what Chinese authorities are gifting folks this new year. Whosoever thought about such a despicable idea in the first place.
PC: LinkedIn
- And the laughable logic is that this measure will make having kids less expensive than not having them. Come on, give me a break. Obviously not, even if high costs of raising children are a key reason for China’s plummeting birth rate. Because anybody whose pocket protests at paying a tax on condoms will hardly welcome paying the much, much higher price of bringing up a baby. Maybe it betrays how frustrated and desperate the government is getting. In the decade since it ended the one-child policy, people have resisted all its go forth and multiply bait. Instead, marriage registrations have halved. Remember that in China, like India, social norms mean that most children are still born in wedlock.
PC: BBC
- And like a lot of other countries, China’s response to the decline of marriage and birth rates is to pile up the pressure on women. Given how central women’s high labour force participation rate (60%) has been to the Chinese economic miracle, nobody is quite sending them to the kitchen. A lot of local government policies suggest that women just go about doing a job instead of chasing a career. It’s all horribly patriarchal, but it pretends as if the crux of patriarchy isn’t that women aren’t the primary decision-makers. Several governments fail at telling men to share childcare and domestic chores, reduce work hours, and take paternity leave. Having babies is a couple’s choice. Ordering that babies be made is impossible, even in China.
