Devan Wasan 5B

Pro and Anti Natalist policies

In 2011, the worlds population reached 7 billion people

Between 1900 and 1990 there was significant exponential growth
which could not be sustained.
China realised that if their population were to continue to grow at
this rate, then they would soon be in a Malthusian crisis- natural
checks would occur and many millions of people would die. They
also felt that rapid population growth was a barrier to economic
progress.
An anti-natalist policy was a policy which seeks to reduce the total
fertility rate (TFR) therefore slowing the population growth.
It was introduced into China in 1982, by leader Deng Xiaoping. It
encouraged sterilisations and abortions, put tell tales in at
workplaces to ensure that people were obeying the law, made sure
that you must be a minimum of 24 years old, have passed a written
exam and received family planning instruction before applying and
only allowed you to receive one baby permission card and if lost,
you wouldnt be able to have a child
Huge fines would be handed out to those who didnt obey the ruleslarge enough to make a family bankrupt and sometimes the
abortions were carried out in the 9th month of pregnancy, killing
both the mother and the child.
However, there were some rewards such as free childcare, schooling
and a 10% pay increase and if you were working in agriculture, the
rules would be relaxed but this was nothing compared to the
ruthless rules put into place.
The population growth of the country decreased by as much as 400
million people over its first 20 years.
However, there was also a huge preference for men; the sex ratio
changed to 114 males: 100 females with the world average 105
males: 100 females. Leading to up to 14million healthy females to
be abandoned during this period.
Thankfully, since the 1990s, the policy has become more relaxed.
There are also more relaxed, anti-natalist policies.
Columbias policy encouraged people rather than forcing them to
not have as many children.
Their main policies were to set up clinics to help plan families and to
sterilise people, to set up contraception clinics and to empower
women. This was so successful that after 55 years, the TFR
decreased by about 3 times.

Devan Wasan 5B

Recently, especially in Europe, there has been a population

decrease; where the crude birth rate is exceeded by the crude death
rate.
The natural replacement rate is about 2.1 children that have to be
born per woman for the population to continue at the current rate.
However almost all of the European countries have a replacement
rate of below 2.1; Greeces is 1.29. All of this is due to two main
factors:
1. The empowerment of women, meaning that they have more
time to work so less time to raise a family
2. Children have become an economic burden- huge school fees
e.t.c
France has a TFR of 1.9. The government realised that this is an
unsustainable decrease in population.
They introduced incentives for people to have larger families; the
more children you have, the lower the tax rate is, a monthly
allowance of 180 for families of 3, rising as they get older. There is
also free access to public amenities such as swimming pools and
half price on the metro.
Finally, people with children get a nanny to help out and free day
care.
Norway (TFR 1.81) and Scandinavia, has created a solution to the
falling birth rates. This is called the Nordic model:
Each parent is entitled to 18 months leave, paid for by the
government and in Norway, mothers are entitled to 12 months off
with 80% pay or 10 months off with full pay. Fathers have to take 4
weeks of leave or those weeks will be lost for both parents. The
leave is financed by taxes, so employers dont lose any money.