Right to a second child 'should be transferred'
By Cai Wenjun |
March 5, 2012, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
COUPLES with the right to have a second child should be able to "sell" that right to the government for distribution to couples who don't, a deputy to the National People's Congress, said yesterday.
Li Xinghao, from southeast China's Guangdong Province, said the government should set up a department to collect applications from couples who want to give up their right and couples eager to have a second child but for whom it would be in contravention of China's family planning policy.
The government would require couples who wanted a second child to pay a sum equivalent to basic social insurance and other benefits including university tuition for the first child of the couple giving up the right.
Li gave no figures but the total sum would be less than the costs involved if couples had a second child illegally.
The couple giving up their right to a second child would then receive the benefits from the government.
He said his idea would help poor families.
According to China's Population and Family Planning Law, there are only a few conditions under which a couple can have a second child. For example, if both spouses are from one-child families or if the first child has a non-hereditary disease. In some rural areas, couples are allowed a second child if their first is a girl.
Couples having a second child they are not entitled to are fined as compensation for the child's use of public resources. The amount of the fine varies according to which province or municipality the couples are from.
In Shanghai, each spouse of a couple delivering an "illegal" second child has to pay three times the average income in the previous year - currently that is 36,230 yuan (US$5,752) - and if a spouse's actual income is higher than that, the fine is calculated on the real income.
People who work for the government also face an administrative penalty, which could cost them their job.
"Couples, like some government officials, dare not have the unlawful second child," Li said. "People having unlawful children are mainly wealthy people and farmers, who become poorer to have more children. So my suggestion is feasible."
He Youlin, another NPC deputy from Guangdong, said the solution to China's current problem of a low birth rate and an increasing proportion of elderly people was to renovate the family planning policy.
However, he said that giving up the right of birth was a basic human right and shouldn't be transferred.
Li's proposal became a hot topic online.
Many people disagreed with it, saying that such a practice could result in ethical and legal problems with wealthy people buying up not only poor couples' quotas but also damaging their self-esteem.
"It is such a ridiculous suggestion. Does it mean that families who don't want a child but are eligible to have two children can sell both rights of the two children and receive double bonus?" was one comment left on Li's microblog.
Asked to comment, Zhang Feng, director of Guangdong's Population and Family Planning Commission, told reporters that transferring the quota would be neither legal nor ethical.
However, some people currently not allowed to have a second child welcomed the idea.
"It would be suitable for couples who have decent jobs but are unable to deliver children overseas," was one comment posted online in response.
Li Xinghao, from southeast China's Guangdong Province, said the government should set up a department to collect applications from couples who want to give up their right and couples eager to have a second child but for whom it would be in contravention of China's family planning policy.
The government would require couples who wanted a second child to pay a sum equivalent to basic social insurance and other benefits including university tuition for the first child of the couple giving up the right.
Li gave no figures but the total sum would be less than the costs involved if couples had a second child illegally.
The couple giving up their right to a second child would then receive the benefits from the government.
He said his idea would help poor families.
According to China's Population and Family Planning Law, there are only a few conditions under which a couple can have a second child. For example, if both spouses are from one-child families or if the first child has a non-hereditary disease. In some rural areas, couples are allowed a second child if their first is a girl.
Couples having a second child they are not entitled to are fined as compensation for the child's use of public resources. The amount of the fine varies according to which province or municipality the couples are from.
In Shanghai, each spouse of a couple delivering an "illegal" second child has to pay three times the average income in the previous year - currently that is 36,230 yuan (US$5,752) - and if a spouse's actual income is higher than that, the fine is calculated on the real income.
People who work for the government also face an administrative penalty, which could cost them their job.
"Couples, like some government officials, dare not have the unlawful second child," Li said. "People having unlawful children are mainly wealthy people and farmers, who become poorer to have more children. So my suggestion is feasible."
He Youlin, another NPC deputy from Guangdong, said the solution to China's current problem of a low birth rate and an increasing proportion of elderly people was to renovate the family planning policy.
However, he said that giving up the right of birth was a basic human right and shouldn't be transferred.
Li's proposal became a hot topic online.
Many people disagreed with it, saying that such a practice could result in ethical and legal problems with wealthy people buying up not only poor couples' quotas but also damaging their self-esteem.
"It is such a ridiculous suggestion. Does it mean that families who don't want a child but are eligible to have two children can sell both rights of the two children and receive double bonus?" was one comment left on Li's microblog.
Asked to comment, Zhang Feng, director of Guangdong's Population and Family Planning Commission, told reporters that transferring the quota would be neither legal nor ethical.
However, some people currently not allowed to have a second child welcomed the idea.
"It would be suitable for couples who have decent jobs but are unable to deliver children overseas," was one comment posted online in response.
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