Few days more to wait and China will officially end one-child policy. From January 1, 2016 the communist country with strong family planning rules will allow couple to have two children. The lawmakers rubber-stamped Sunday the new legislation during a session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee that runs the laws.
The newly revised Law on Population and Family Planning said the state now advocates every couple are now eligible to have two children.
The news of new upcoming policy broke in October this yaar after the ruling Communist Party released a statement saying the change in law is to promote a balanced growth of population and improve the government strategy on population development.
Sociologist Lu Jiehua at the Peking University said the new policy will effect 100 million couples. Currently the country has a population of more than 1.3 billion people and the one-child policy was implemented in the 1970s to control population growth.
Meanwhile, the Amnesty International human rights group has warned the government just change in policy is not enough.
China researcher William Nee said, “Couples that have two children could still be subjected to coercive and intrusive forms of contraception, and even forced abortions — which amount to torture.”
The government started relaxing the one-baby policy in January 2014 by allowing couples to have a second child if the mother or father was an only child.
Meanwhile, with the current population it is said in about fifteen years the country could become the home to the most elderly population in the world.
