KATHMANDU: The nature of control that the Chinese state has over its population and can calibrate the national growth by tweaking the size of families is an indication of a complete denial of human rights and freedom to live and decide an individual’s future.
China introduced the one-child policy in 1979 which had a tremendous impact on couples who wanted a balanced family with a healthy sibling relationship with two or more children.
Conceptually, Chinese nationals were denied the option to think beyond one child even if they wanted otherwise.
The policy had severe implications on the society with the state squeezing its people to remain in rhythm with state policies and deny them the option of planning their respective families.
The consoling factor was the bright projections the state made about the nature of benefits the nation would have as a result of the one-child policy and how these benefits would eventually favorably impact these individuals and the nation.
Now after experiencing virtually no impact of the 2 child policy, China has lately introduced a 3 child policy to offset the negative fallout of its previous policies.
However, by mid-2000 China realized the flaw in the policy as the drop in the younger population was considerable and the ratio of old age to young age became utterly lopsided.
This led China to shift to a 2 child policy in 2015 wherein the focus was to stem this negative drift in the old young population ratio.
However, while doing so the government did not cater to the psychological impact the policy would have on families which over the years were groomed to remain satisfied with one child.
Those desirous of 2 or more children but had to restrict themselves to one child felt cheated by the govt as subsequent generations were given the advantage of 2 children as against the previous generation.
It is easy for the government to shift mode but to play with the sentiments of the people on the pretext of state policy amounts to total human rights violation and absolute disregard for people’s freedom.
Now after experiencing virtually no impact of the 2 child policy, China has lately introduced a 3 child policy to offset the negative fallout of its previous policies.
This shows the extent to which the Chinese government can twist and turn individual freedom of each of its nationals in the name of the state or the party, even if these policies remain convoluted and are gross intimidation of an individual’s rights.
There is likelihood that if the 3 child policy does not work from the government’s perspective the government might introduce a 4 child policy.
This replicates a typical factory production lineup where if the demand for a product in the market drops the manufacturing is controlled and as soon as the demand increases due to uncontrolled factors the pace of production is increased.
Today China would be known to have population groups which would be regarded as the one-child group, the 2 child group, and the 3 child group. The 3 child policy takes the issue to the other extreme.
The Chinese system of controlled birth rate based on state instructions makes the birth control mechanism appear like a product line thus blurring the difference between a human child and an ordinary product.
The constant change in the number of children one can have from time to time also portrays the Chinese state as being insensitive about its people and their welfare.
While family planning has been implemented in a number of countries it has never been undertaken in such a regulated and controlled manner.
Today China would be known to have population groups which would be regarded as the one-child group, the 2 child group, and the 3 child group. The 3 child policy takes the issue to the other extreme.
While having 2 children is the generally accepted balanced norm in families anywhere in the world, to force couples to go beyond the 2 children also amounts to forced family expansion – once again a violation of human rights and snatching of freedom of people to decide their future.
Comment