China, the world's most populous country, is not expecting a surge in population growth due to a major change in its controversial 'one-child' family planning policy aimed at addressing serious demographic challenges, the state media reported.
China's top legislature yesterday approved the government's proposal to allow couples to have two children if either parent is an only child, a move considered the most significant liberalisation of China's strict one-child policy in nearly three decades.
"The State Council (China's cabinet) expects the policy change to cause only a slight increase in births," Xinhua news agency reported.
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"It is the right time to do it as the low birth rate is stable, the working population is still large and the burden to support the elderly is relatively light," Li Bin, minister in charge of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, had said last week.
To adapt to the new circumstances and meet people's expectations, China, which has a population of over 1.3 billion, has to adjust its family planning policies, Li had said.
China's family planning policy was first introduced in the late 1970s to rein in population increase by limiting most urban couples to one child and most rural couples to two, if the first child was a girl.
The government estimates that since the introduction of the rules in the 1970s, the one-child policy has prevented some 400 million births.
China's ruling Communist Party had announced last month that it would take steps to loosen its one-child-policy, which has been in place since 1979.
The bi-monthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) passed a resolution yesterday on family planning, allowing provincial congresses to make their own calls on implementation based on evaluation of local demographic situation.
The changes were made against a backdrop of steadily declining birth rates and changing demographics, reducing the working population in China, the world's most populous with
The birth rate is relatively low and was showing signs of falling further. The rate has dropped to between 1.5 and 1.6 since the 1990s, which means each Chinese woman of child- bearing age gives birth to 1.5 to 1.6 children, on average.
