One Child Policy

There is one main cause of these overpopulated orphanages and it all traces back to the one child policy.  In 1979, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping established the one child policy meaning that each couple could only have one child.  The “birthing plan” has now been in effect for over 30 years.  The goal of the one child policy was to keep China’s population below 1.3 billion by the year 2000.  China is currently home to over 1.2 billion people (adoption).  This plan has worked good to significantly reduce the number of people living in China, but it has also caused major problems.   Fines, pressure to abort a pregnancy, and even forced sterilization have been results of the one child policy.   Abortion is legal in China and is state funded but not mandatory.  Some women abort their baby on their own and even wait days before they’re due date to abort the baby.  For women who don’t want to abort their baby, there are other options, one of them being adoption.  Because of the one child policy, the orphanages are swamped with children and don’t have enough money to support them and enough workers to take care of them. Some women are try to keep it a secret that they are giving their baby up for adoption so they will leave them in public places where someone will hopefully find it.  My aunt was told that Lu "was found by the hospital".  They didn't say how she was found, but it is typical for women to abandon their baby in a box, basket, or blanket where someone will find them. 

Most rules come with exceptions, and the one child policy is one of those rules.  Families living in urban areas are only allowed one child, while families that live in rural areas are allowed to have more than one due to the extra labor needed in farming communities.  The rule also does not apply to minorities living in China (Han).

Due to the one child policy, some Chinese people are picky about which gender child they have.  Chinese parents prefer to have boys because they carry on the family name and are more likely to stick around and take care of them when they grow old.  They also like boys because they can put them to work.  Some people are even selfish enough to keep trying until they have a boy, and just abort the baby when they find out it’s a girl.  This is not good because there are way more men than women which means a lot less men getting married, reproducing, and keeping on the family tradition.



Below I posted a video about the one child policy and the effects that it has on the younger generation.