Monday 5 December 2011

Rewards for One Child and Punishments for Extra Children



Marry Late poster
 Parents who have only one child get a "one-child glory certificate," which entitles them to economic benefits such as an extra month's salary every year until the child is 14. Among the other benefits for one child families are higher wages, interest-free loans, retirement funds, cheap fertilizer, better housing, better health care, and priority in school enrollment. Women who delay marriage until after they are 25 receive benefits such as an extended maternity leave when they finally get pregnant. These privileges are taken away if the couple decides to have an extra child. Promises for new housing often are not kept because of housing shortages.
 The one-child program theoretically is voluntary, but the government imposes punishments and heavy fines on people who don't follow the rules. Parents with extra children can be fined, depending on the region, from $370 to $12,800 (many times the average annual income for many ordinary Chinese). If the fine is not paid sometimes the couples land is taken away, their house is destroyed, they lose their jobs or the child is not allowed to attend school.
 Sometimes the punishments seem more than a little over the top. In the 1980s a woman from Shanghai named Mao Hengfeng, who got pregnant with her second child, was fired from her job, forced to undergo an abortion and was sent to a psychiatric hospital and was still in a labor camp the early 2000s, There were reports that she had been tortured.

Undocumented Children in China

 Additional children born to parents that have reached their one-child limit often have a rough ride. Some are denied a birth certificate and proper documentation. This effects them for the rest of their life. Without proper papers these children can not enter school, find work as adults or do most of anything legally.
 Undocumented children (also called "black permit" children) are children who are born and raised in secret and never registered with the government. To avoid detection by the Family Planning Association the children are shuffled around among uncles, aunts and siblings. Pregnant women who chose to hide in the countryside until they give birth are sometimes called "birth guerrillas."
  • Life as a second child is often a great struggle! In society, you are looked down upon and often called a "mistake" or "a niece or nephew" of your actual parents.
  • China's population continues to decrease  as less and less amounts of children are born.
  • In Canada, we pay people who have just had children baby bonus to help provide for their new family while China prevents its people from having more than one child- often promoting infertility. 

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