One Child Policy. Social Sciences. Research Paper

Student’s Name
Course
Instructor
Date
One Child Policy
Over the past years, the population of the world has shown a gradual increase due to various factors. In most cases, this increase is attributed to the lack of policies in individual countries and states that are aimed at controlling and regulating this population growth. The effects of this unchecked increase are felt both socially and economically. China is one such country that suffered the consequences of unchecked population growth for a long time. Due to this, the year 1979 saw the introduction of a population planning policy in China known as the one-child policy. This policy was mainly aimed at helping reduce the population in China and subsequently reduce the negative effects of rapid population growth. As much as the one-child policy helped to control the Chinese population for a relatively long time, this was not without some consequences. With time, the policy proved to have more negative than positive effects and as a result, there was a need to revise it. This situation led to the replacement of the one-child policy with the two-child policy. Due to the above reasons, this paper examines both the one child policy and two child policy, their positive and negative effects and, the reasons as to why the one child policy was later replaced by the two-child policy. In addition, suggestions are given for possible solutions to the Chinese population problem.
Due to the consequences of rapid population growth both socially and economically, the Chinese government introduced the one child policy. The policy was put in place in the year 1979 by the Chinese central government with the main aim of helping to control the population growth rate to be within limits that could be sustained by the resources available. Inarguably, the implementation process was a great success, with a 250 million reduction in overall population, which also meant a notable decrease in the social and economic pressures associated with a rapid increase in population. This success in population control was made possible by the fact that the policy helped prevent around 400 million births. Another positive effect of the one child policy is that it led to the recognition of females by giving them more right and power. According to Fong (2002), the investments made on the females traditionally, were less compared to the ones made on male children. However, with the policy allowing only one child, parents were left with no choice but to invest in their female children. This increased investment in the females was necessitated by the need to have someone to provide old age support for the parents. The one child policy has also been established to have a positive effect on education. In his study, Yang (2007) argues that with a smaller number of siblings, parents are well able to invest in the education of that one child fully even at higher levels. In addition, having one child also means that parents experience less pressure in terms of time, energy and finances that they need to invest in their child unlike the case of those parents with more than one child. Due to this availability of adequate resources, the child enjoys the advantage of proper care and better education. Evidently, attaini...