China offers 30 days paid ‘marriage leaves’ to tackle declining birth rate

Beijing: After announcing plans of covering fertility treatments to boost a declining birth rate, some provinces in China will offer 30 days of paid leaves for newlyweds couples. According to reports by China’s People’s Daily Health, the north-western province of Gansu as well as the province of Shanxi will now give 30 days of paid marriage leaves while Shanghai gives 10 and Sichuan offers only three days. The rest of China, similarly, offers three days of paid leaves to new couples but some provinces, in a bid to encourage people to get married and have more children, have been generous to grant more leaves. Yang Haiyang, the dean of the Social Development Research Institute of the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics said, “Extending marriage leave is one of the effective ways of increasing the fertility rate." “The extension of marriage leave is mainly in some provinces and cities with relatively slow economic development,” he added. Yang, however, also emphasised the need for other measures to support couples including housing subsidies and paid paternity leave for men. Free fertility treatment Earlier this month, China planned to offer free fertility treatments to its citizens under the national insurance scheme. The country’s National Healthcare Security Administration has said that it would extend its coverage to bear the costs of fertility treatments like assisted reproductive technology (ART) and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) for couples trying to conceive. According to CNN, the extended coverage is part of a wider attempt by Chinese authorities to persuade people to get married and have more children to fill the population gap. The average cost of fertility treatment in cities like Shanghai ranges between $4,500 to $5,000. While the number of ART-approved facilities in China as of 2021 is 539. Each year these organisations facilitate more than a million IVF cycles, according to China’s National Clinical Research Centre for Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Couples in Sichuan allowed to have ‘unlimited’ kids In January, couples in China’s Sichuan province were allowed to have as many children as they like. Under the new policy, unmarried couples were also permitted to have and raised children. Earlier, single women were banned from registering a birth. President Xi Jinping has made it a priority to boost birth rates in the country by offering tax breaks and better maternal healthcare to slow down a declining population. China’s population drop Last year, China – the erstwhile country with the largest population – recorded its first population fall in six decades. The country’s National Bureau of Statistics reported a drop of roughly 850,000 people compared to a population of 1.41175 billion in 2022, making it the first decline since 1961. Moreover, UN experts have predicted a further shrink of the population by 109 million by 2050. Demographer Yi Fuxian told Reuters, “China’s demographic and economic outlook is much bleaker than expected. China will have to adjust its social, economic, defence and foreign policies.” China scrapped its controversial one-child policy in 2015 amid concerns about a growing population of the elderly which in turn threatened the country’s workforce and economic stability. Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.