Incentives proposed to encourage more babies
Call for policies aimed at female graduate and doctorate students creates a stir online
A raft of proposals have been rolled out on how to incentivise women to have children, including encouraging postgraduate students to get married, subsidising kindergartens, and greater use of artificial intelligence (AI) in education to reduce costs and save time for families.
The ideas come against a backdrop of growing concern about the nation’s demographic challenges. The population is ageing rapidly and births are plunging, a combination that threatens to weigh on economic productivity and burden the health care system.
Parliamentary delegates have raised numerous pronatalist proposals such as removing all family planning restrictions, offering free kindergarten for a family’s third child and free day care at work, as well as lowering mortgage rates and personal income tax for families raising multiple children.
Zhou Yanfang, a delegate to the National People’s Congress and a deputy general manager at Pacific Medical & Healthcare Management, said policies were needed to encourage female graduate and doctorate students to have children, while protecting their right to do so.
She suggested they be allowed to take maternity leave and doctorate students be given stipends during the time off. Graduation should be able to be postponed accordingly. Universities should also be equipped with maternity and infant health services.
The proposal created a stir online, with claims it would stoke gender discrimination within academia and demands that people’s choices be respected.
“I think this delegate’s suggestion is unnecessary,” said independent demographer He Yafu.
“Whether postgraduate students decide to get married and have children does not need to be encouraged nor prohibited, they should decide for themselves. Marriage and giving birth are bound to affect the students academic performance as well.”
Zhou said a woman’s willingness to give birth should be improved from the root, by offering more societal support and protection of their rights.
“I see discrimination against female jobseekers from both male and female managers, increased workloads imposed on working mums,” she said. “I also see stayat-home mums working non-stop all year round for the family without getting paid or recognition of their values from society or their own family.”
Liu Qingfeng, an NPC delegate and president of voice recognition software company iFlyTek, proposed greater use of AI in education to reduce costs and save time for families.