Quake forces "One Child" relaxation

 ACB only has one word to describe this story: Inevitable

From the pen of journalist Cara Anna

One-child policy has exceptions after China quake

Chinese officials announced Monday that the country's strict one-child policy will make some exceptions for certain families affected by the devastating earthquake two weeks ago.

Families with a child who was killed, severely injured or disabled in the quake can obtain a certificate to have another child, the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee in the capital of hard-hit Sichuan province said.

The May 12 quake was particularly painful to many Chinese because it killed so many only children. The destruction of almost 7,000 classrooms during a school day left China heartbroken, with newspaper photos focusing on piles of dusty bookbags and small hands emerging from the debris.

The earthquake has killed more than 65,000 people so far, with more than 23,000 missing. Officials have not been able to estimate the number of children killed.

Monday's emergency announcement affects the city of Chengdu, which has 10 million people, as well as two of the hardest-hit cities, Dujiangyan and Pengzhou.

With so many shattered families asking questions, the Chengdu committee is clarifying existing one-child policy guidelines to make them specific to quake victims, said a committee official surnamed Wang.

"There are just a lot of cases now, so we need to clarify our policies," said Wang.

The committee plans to help about 1,200 of the worst-hit families, but that number could change, he added.

It was unknown if other cities in the earthquake zone would issue similar announcements. A woman answering phones at the Sichuan provincial population and family planning office said officials are still studying the issue. She did not give her name, as is common in China.

The announcement gives a glimpse into the strict nature of China's one-child system.

Couples who have more than one child are commonly punished by fines. The announcement says that if a child born illegally was killed in the quake, the parents will no longer have to pay fines for that child — but the previously paid fines won't be refunded.

If the couple's legally born child is killed and the couple is left with an illegally born child under the age of 18, that child can be registered as the legal child — an important move that gives the child previously denied rights including free nine years of compulsory education.

China's one-child policy was launched in the late 1970s to control China's exploding population and ensure better education and health care. The law includes certain exceptions for ethnic groups, rural families and families where both parents are only children.

The government says the policy has prevented an additional 400 million births, but critics say it has also led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio as local authorities pursue sometimes severe birth quotas set by Beijing and families abort girls out of a traditional preference for male heirs.

Many Chinese have shown interest in adopting earthquake orphans, and Monday's announcement says there are no limits on the number of earthquake orphans a family can adopt. The adoptions, or even a future birth to a family that adopts an orphan, will not face the limitations of the one-child policy.

Officials estimated last week that the quake left about 4,000 orphans, but they warned they would make every effort to connect children with other family members.
 

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