China approves three-child policy with sops
China's national legislature on Friday formally endorsed the three-child policy mooted by the ruling Communist Party, in a major policy shift aimed to prevent a steep decline in birth rates in the world's most populous country.
The revised Population and Family Planning Law, which allows Chinese couples to have three children, was passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).
In an apparent attempt to address the reluctance of the Chinese couples to have more children due to mounting costs, the amended law has also passed more social and economic support measures to address the concerns.
The new law stipulates that the country will take supportive measures, including those in taxes, education, and employment, among others to reduce families' burdens as well as the cost of raising and educating children, state-run China Daily reported.
The NPC has revised the law to implement the central leadership's decision to cope with new circumstances in social and economic development and promote balanced longterm population growth, the report said. In May this year, the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) approved a relaxation of its strict twochild policy to allow all couples to have up to three children.
China permitted all couples to have two children in 2016, scrapping the draconian decades-old one-child policy which policymakers blame for the demographic crisis in the country.
Chinese officials claim the onechild policy implemented has prevented over 400 million births.
The decision to permit the third child came after this month's once-in-a-decade census showed that China's population grew at the slowest pace to 1.412 billion amid official projections that the decline may begin as early as next year.
The declining trend prompted Chinese demographers to predict that India's population may overtake China's earlier than the UN projection of 2027 to take the top spot as the most populous country in the world.