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Recently, the Women's and Children's Department of the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission produced the "Questionnaire on the Cost of Raising Infants and Young Children Under 3 Years old in Zhejiang Province", which asked: "Assuming that the government subsidizes 1,000 yuan per month for having two/three children (from birth to 3 years old), are you willing to have a second/third child?" "It has aroused widespread discussion in society.
"Send money" to encourage the birth of a baby, will it really have an effect? What problems should be paid attention to when local governments implement childcare subsidy policies? In addition to childcare subsidies, what homework should be done to encourage childbearing? China City Daily reporter conducted relevant interviews.
The Department of Obstetrics of zhongda Hospital Affiliated to Southeast University in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, the newly listed "'Three-Child' Fertility Consultation Clinic" attracts attention. Photographed by Wang Luxian, China News Service
Many places have formulated childcare subsidy policies
Not long ago, the Hainan Provincial Health Commission also produced and released a similar questionnaire on fertility policy. In terms of birth subsidies, the question set by Hainan is "Assuming that the government gives a monthly subsidy of 500 yuan for having two/three children (from birth to 3 years old), are you willing to have two or three children?" ”
"It is difficult to give a specific answer as to how much childcare allowance is appropriate." Ma Chunhua, director of the Research Office of Gender and Family Sociology at the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with China City Daily that families of different income classes have different requirements and standards for childcare. The specific amount of childcare subsidies to be issued is appropriate, which needs to be considered in all aspects and accurately calculated.
"Taking the 1,000 yuan childcare subsidy mentioned in the Zhejiang Provincial Questionnaire as an example, its meaning is different for different income classes. For high-income groups, the incentive effect of the 1,000 yuan childcare subsidy is relatively limited; for the low-income group, the 1,000 yuan childcare subsidy may be an important economic support. Ma Chunhua said.
Previously, some cities have put childcare subsidy policies into practice.
As early as 2013, Shenzhen began to implement the "Shenzhen Children's Healthy Growth Plan", which provides healthy growth subsidies for children aged 3 to 6 who are not registered in shenzhen and who meet the requirements of the "Notice of Shenzhen Municipality on Strengthening and Improving Population Management And Five Supporting Documents" (Shenzhen [2005] No. 125) according to the standard of 1500 yuan per year per birth.
In July 2021, Panzhihua City issued the "Sixteen Policies and Measures on Promoting the Gathering of Human Resources", which clearly stipulates that For Panzhihua households with a second child or more in accordance with the policy, a monthly childcare subsidy of 500 yuan per child will be issued until the child is 3 years old. In other words, starting from the second child, each child can receive a total of 18,000 yuan in subsidies.
In September 2021, Linze County, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, issued the Implementation Opinions on Optimizing The Birth Policy of Linze County to Promote the Long-term Balanced Development of the Population (Trial Implementation), which gives a one-time birth allowance of 2,000 yuan, 3,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan to permanent mothers with household registration in public medical institutions in Linze County, and 5,000 yuan per year to permanent families with two or three children in public medical institutions in Linze County, and 5,000 yuan per year to the second child. The three children are given a childcare allowance of 10,000 yuan per year until the child is 3 years old.
At the same time, more and more provinces have opened the "send money to encourage the birth of babies" model.
On November 25, 2021, the 32nd session of the Standing Committee of the 13th Zhejiang Provincial People's Congress deliberated and adopted a decision on amending the Zhejiang Provincial Population and Family Planning Regulations. The revised "Zhejiang Provincial Population and Family Planning Regulations" make it clear that the people's governments of counties (cities, districts) may, according to local conditions, give childcare allowances and childcare expense subsidies to infant and young children under the age of 3.
Not long after, the 27th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th Hunan Provincial People's Congress voted to adopt the newly revised "Hunan Provincial Population and Family Planning Regulations." It stipulates that people's governments at or above the county level shall improve and improve the guarantee mechanism for services in areas such as compulsory education, women's employment, housing, and childbirth, and encourage people's governments at or above the county level to establish a childcare subsidy system for families who have a second child or more in accordance with law.
Jilin Province also proposed that people's governments at or above the county level should establish a childcare subsidy system and continuously improve supporting measures to promote childbearing. Provincial finance shall give appropriate subsidies according to the implementation of the local system. Heilongjiang Province proposed that the implementation of the childcare subsidy system, the municipal and county-level people's governments should establish a childcare subsidy system for families who have a second child or above in accordance with the law, and appropriately tilt it to border areas and old revolutionary areas.
In the view of Dong Yuzhen, president of the Guangdong Population Development Research Institute, the adoption of birth subsidies in various places is conducive to further stimulating people's fertility aspirations and releasing people's fertility potential. At the same time, when proposing relevant policies, especially the birth subsidy policy, local governments should persist in doing their best and doing what they can, not only to cash in now, but also to ensure that they can be sustained and long-term.
Will childcare subsidies be effective?
"Childcare subsidies are one of the important policy tools for encouraging and supporting fertility abroad." Taking France as an example, Ma Chunhua introduced that the most important thing in French family policy is to provide generous cash subsidies. Family grants and tax breaks are at the heart of French household policy, spending about 4% of France's GDP, one of the most important in the world.
"In 2018, the French Family Aid Agency paid a total of 90.2 billion euros in benefits, of which young children accounted for 16%, children and adolescents accounted for 24%, family pensions accounted for 11%, housing accounted for 18%, and solidarity funds accounted for 28%. Families raising at least one child under the age of 20 are eligible for various family allowances and tax breaks. The amount of benefits available to beneficiary families depends on factors such as family income, the number of children to be supported and their age. Ma Chunhua said.
However, the effectiveness of childcare subsidies remains to be seen. Ma Chunhua introduced that the reason why France's fertility rate has always been at the forefront of Europe, in addition to generous cash subsidies, it also cooperates with other policy tools, such as maternity holidays and public childcare systems, etc. As for which policy tools play a greater role, it needs to be studied in depth.
The reporter noted that in May 2021, the core journal of Peking University", "Cash Subsidy or Childcare Service?" published in the core journal of Peking University "Society". An Analysis of the Fertility Effects of European Family Policies provides a viable analytical framework for the impact of cash subsidies and childcare services on fertility decisions.
The results of the above study show that childcare services have a significant positive effect on whether European families have children, and for every unit of increase in the benefits of childcare services provided by the government, the actual chance of having a child increases by 27%. Unlike childcare services, cash subsidies, as another important policy tool for governments to incentivize childbearing, do not have statistical significance in different models.
At the same time, experts interviewed cautioned that childcare subsidies could have a negative effect. "Childcare subsidies have the potential to solidify the traditional gender division of labor, and it encourages families, especially women, to be the main responsible persons for childcare, affecting the development of women's careers." This will further reduce women's willingness to have children, and even some women may refuse to have children for the sake of their career development. Ma Chunhua said.
In addition, some scholars believe that childcare subsidies may cause the "Matthew effect" of population births in the region, that is, where there is a lot of financial resources, the more conditions are available to introduce stimulus measures, so that the more they can attract people who are willing to have children, and then bring about a sustained demographic dividend; on the contrary, where the finance is tight, it is impossible to introduce relevant measures to stimulate fertility, and inevitably, population loss and birth rate decline will become a long-term trend.
How should localities correctly "send money" to encourage childbearing? In Ma Chunhua's view, if the childcare subsidy policy is implemented, the first thing to consider is whether this benefit is inclusive or for a specific group. That is, whether the childcare allowance is for all childcare families or only for low-income families.
"If the childcare subsidy is inclusive, on the one hand, it involves the government's financial affordability, on the other hand, it may not play a significant incentive role for high-income groups; if the childcare subsidy is only for specific groups, it may be detrimental to the improvement of the overall population quality of the mainland to a certain extent, and it is not conducive to the accumulation of human capital for future economic development." Ma Chunhua further analyzed.
How to effectively encourage fertility
Send money to encourage babies, young people to buy it? Respondents had mixed reactions to childcare benefits.
In the course of the reporter's interview, most of the interviewees believe that the monthly subsidy of 1,000 yuan per child is difficult to cover the child's birth examination, milk powder, nutritional products, diapers and other expenses, in addition, the child's growth process education, medical care is also a big expense. Some respondents also believe that the childcare subsidy itself is a signal to families who want to have two or three children more confident and more active in raising the next generation.
Monthly subsidy of 1000 yuan, are you willing to have a second or third child? The reporter noted that the results of the nearly 10,000 people participating in the voting initiated by the media on social platforms showed that nearly 90% of people clearly expressed "unwillingness", and only less than 10% of people expressed "willingness" or "can be considered".
In the view of the experts interviewed, in addition to childcare subsidies, the toolkit of encouraging fertility policies should be more abundant.
"Childcare subsidies are not a major aspect of fertility support policies." Wang Guixin, former director of the Institute of Population Research of Fudan University and director of the Urban and Regional Development Research Center, said in an interview with China City Daily that the most critical thing to encourage fertility is to cancel the birth control policy as soon as possible and let the reproductive rights return to family autonomy.
On July 20, 2021, the Decision of the CENTRAL Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Optimizing Fertility Policies to Promote long-term balanced development of the population was issued, proposing that China implement the policy that one couple can have three children, and requiring all localities to formulate implementation plans to ensure that the optimization of fertility policies achieves positive results.
At the same time, Wang Guixin believes that promoting gender equality is also important. Under the current conditions, childbirth will have a certain impact on women's personal career development, and some women need to give up the opportunity of career development to raise children. The government should improve the status of women through the introduction of policies, respect the legitimate rights and interests of women in childbirth and employment, and create a good social environment in which women can enter and leave the family and the workplace without restrictions and flexible employment is guaranteed.
Ma Chunhua expressed a similar view: "The uniqueness of women's reproductive function determines that any policy to encourage fertility must be considered on the premise of gender equality, and cannot harm women's interests in order to encourage fertility, otherwise it will be difficult to achieve the purpose of encouraging fertility." ”
■ Reporter: Xing Can