Topic: Population PoliciesCase Studies: China, India

(Denmark)

Aim: In what ways can a country attempt to control its population?

Do Now:

What population challenges do your countries face?

What policies should each country consider implementing in order to meet these challenges?

Population Policies

• Expansive or Pro-Natalist Policies– Encourage large families

– e.g. Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Soviet Union

• Eugenic Population Policy – Devoted to improving the human race through heredity by controlling who has children with whom

Order of Maternal Glory 1st Class

9 children 500,000 awarded

Motherhood Medal 2nd Class

5 children 8,000,000 awarded

Pro-Natalist Policies: Denmark

•Why would a country promote pro-natalist policies today?

•“Do it for Denmark”–Travel-company organized movement–Prized to couples who conceive on vacation

–“Do it for Mom”•"Send your child on an active holiday and get a grandchild within nine months"

Population Policies

• Restrictive or Anti-Natalist policies discourage births.

• Philippines (only Asian Catholic country) government restricts birth control

• Despite Vatican policies, most Catholic Italians practice birth control

Rough translation - “Fewer births mean better births and lifelong happiness”

Thinking historically, for what reasons do you think China currently has the largest population of any country on Earth?

Impact of Mao Zedong in China:• In the 1950s and 1960s Mao instructed the nation to have as many children as possible

• Bury the United States in a “human wave.”

Birth rate soared to 5.8 children per couple

• Unsustainable for China's natural resources

• By 1962 a massive famine had caused some 30 million deaths

China’s “One Child Policy”

• Introduced in 1978-80 by Deng Xiaoping after Mao’s death

• Aimed to reduce the rate of population growth

• Economic and social rewards for those who adhere to it, penalties for those who do not

China’s aggressive policy enforcement of the One couple, one child” is displayed

on this billboard.

Exceptions• Ethnic minorities (Zhuang, Manchu, Hui, Miao, Uighur, Tujia, Yi, Mongol, Tibetan, Buyi, Dong, Yao, Korean, and other nationalities 8.5%)

• If both parents are only children, they may have > 1 child if spaced more than 4 years apart

• Families who have children with mental or physical disabilities are sometimes allowed to have another child

• First 6 years - 70 million abortions

• 1980s - about 20 million sterilizations a year– 3X as many women as men.

• Communist party members were given cash and promotions for enforcing the laws

• 1984 One Child Policy was relaxed in the countryside - strictly enforced in urban areas

• Many rural Chinese defied rule, hid pregnant women, failed to register births, prevented inspectors from visiting rural villages

• 1984 One Child Policy was relaxed in the countryside - strictly enforced in urban areas

• Government took drastic action:– Violators were fined– Land was confiscated– Lost all benefits– Pregnant women were arrested & forced to have abortions

Harbin Hospital nurse checks newborns.

In some areas a second or third child resulted in 10% reduction in income until child reaches 14 yrs old.

Questions1. In what ways can Chin

a’s policy create a global issue?

2. In what ways do cultural preferences impact the population in China?

3. Describe some of the consequences (both intended and not) of China’s One Child Policy on their population structure.

• 3/10 families have grandparents living with them

• Number of elderly is rising– by 2050 about 30% of the population will be over 60

– no pensions or social security.

• China’s only children will have to support two parents and perhaps 4 grandparents

China’s “Little Emperors”• Single children• How does this affect

the way their parents treat them / raise them?

• How does this affect them as adults?

Gender imbalance•Sex-specific abortions a major factor•119+ boys for every 100 girls•30 million unmarried men by 2020•45% of Chinese women said they don’t intend to marry•More than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses in 2020•High levels of prostitution, STDs, and general social instability in certain regions

China’s “Lost Girls”

Anti-Natalist Policies: India

India's population, 1901 to 2000

“Sterilization drive”state-sponsored initiatives in which the government pays women to get sterilized

Implications of population growth in India•Supplies of freshwater are stretched to the limit•Soil exhaustion and erosion•Cultivating low-lying, hurricane-prone islands•Overgrazing•Protein consumption is 20% below nutritional needs•Unable to provide social services and education•Makeshift housing in squatter settlements

Nonetheless, remarkable economic growth, large middle

class, and leadership in the information economy

Questions

1.Are policies like China’s One Child Policy necessary? Are there other (viable) options for controlling population growth?

2.Should a government (any government) have the right to dictate citizens’ reproductive behavior?