Couples in Chinese County Offered Cash to Have Babies as Country Struggles with Population Decline

In a bid to encourage more births, a county in western China has announced a reward of cash subsidies to couples to have children.

According to a report in Bloomberg, families with three children in China’s Linze county in Gansu province will receive 5,000 yuan ($777) in a lump sum payment when a third child is born to them. Not just this, they will get another 10,000 yuan a year before the kid turns three.

Families with one or two children can receive smaller subsidies, and the local authority has promised subsidies for schooling fees and home purchases, the report said.

China had upgraded its notorious one-child policy to allow two kids per couple in 2015. Six years later, it has gone one step further and is asking couples to have three children if they want to, offering several incentives to encourage such a decision.

Slowing population growth and an ageing workforce is something that the country’s authoritarian rulers are nervous about. While the demographic troubles of today may have their roots in the past, there are other factors that may hinder couples from obliging the country’s rulers.

When the country had brought in its one-child policy, in the late 1970s, it had laid down elaborate penalties for violators, including fines and loss of employment. Now, as it seeks to inject more life into its population growth rate, it is rolling out significant benefits for those who decide to go for three children.

While the exact details are not clear, Chinese Xinhua news agency said that Beijing is contemplating introduction of parental leave and the setting up of more nursery and children’s daycare centres in public areas and workplaces.

It has been reported that in less than 30 years from now, people aged 60 years and above could account for up to a third of China’s population. The decline of the productive population would increase pressures on the younger generations to support the elderly. The overall impact on the economy would be significant while a 2019 report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences warned that urban pension funds could run out by 2035 thanks to demographic pressures.

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