Recently, Gan Huatian, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said that there is a contradiction between the burden of female family childcare and social labor participation, and that raising children is the responsibility of both husband and wife, "it is unfair if only women bear it."
He pointed out that the employment cost of nannies in the market is relatively high, and if male maternity leave can be extended, the cost of family parenting can be reduced to a certain extent.
Therefore, it is recommended to improve supporting measures for childbirth, strengthen the protection of women's rights and interests, and strive to eliminate employment discrimination among women of childbearing age; Consideration can be given to extending maternity leave, especially for men, to effectively balance the "family balance" of women's excessive parenting responsibilities.
This speech resonated with many netizens. "It is recommended to extend male maternity leave" is on the hot search, and many netizens have liked and supported.
However, some netizens said that only extending male maternity leave is still not enough to improve fertility, and promoting fertility requires multiple measures and joint efforts from employment, housing, education, parenting and other aspects.
Does extending male maternity leave promote fertility? In what other ways can fertility be promoted? Members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) made suggestions one after another.
Gan Huatian, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference:
Use housing security and real money to subsidize the birth of families
In addition to extending male maternity leave, Gan Huatian, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and West China Hospital of Sichuan University, put forward a series of suggestions on how to improve the fertility intention and fertility level of the school-age population.
He pointed out that at present, the childbearing concept of the childbearing age is solidified, the impact of the "two-child" and "three-child" policies on the overall fertility rate in the mainland is not as expected, the cost of childcare is too high, the lack of public facilities and other factors have caused the "fear of childbirth" of the school-age population.
He said that reducing the cost of raising children, such as providing childcare subsidies, regulating the maternity market and changing the concept of childcare. He said that subsidizing families with real money not only helps reduce the pressure of childbirth and parenting, but also reflects the state's policy intention to encourage childbirth.
Supporting measures for childbirth also need to be improved. For example, strengthen the protection of women's rights and interests and introduce housing security policies for multi-child families.
As the mainland gradually implements the delayed retirement policy, grandparents will be more restricted in participating in the care of infants and young children, which will further aggravate the care problems of infants and young children. To this end, we must accelerate the development of infant care and care services, standardize service standards, improve the quality of practitioners, and strive to improve the quality and level of services.
In terms of fertility policies, more effective policies to encourage fertility should be explored. For example, special education subsidies are issued to families with two or three children, and free education is provided for the third child from kindergarten to high school graduation. Reduce the medical burden of child-rearing families, implement free medical care for children under 6 years old, and improve children's health and population quality.
Yang Shuang, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference:
Some public kindergartens can be integrated into nurseries
On February 28, the National Bureau of Statistics released the Statistical Communiqué of the People's Republic of China on National Economic and Social Development in 2022. According to statistics, the national population at the end of (2022) was 141175 million, 850,000 less than at the end of the previous year.
Yang Shuang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and professor of the School of Medicine of Nankai University, suggested that public kindergartens with conditions should increase the number of nursery classes, and provide diversified services such as full-day care, half-day care, timed care, and temporary care, so as to solve the problem of childcare in a targeted manner.
"The development of an inclusive childcare service system will help alleviate the problem of raising children in dual-income families." Yang Shuang suggested that the problem of childcare should be solved in a targeted manner according to age groups:
Childcare for 0-1 years old is family-oriented, and support policies may include extending women's maternity leave, increasing male nursing leave, and adjusting wages during leave;
1-2 years old childcare is jointly undertaken by the family, the government and society, and support policies may include temporary childcare leave, childcare allowance, etc.;
Childcare services for the ages of 2-6 are basic public services for the responsibility of the government, and some public kindergartens can be expanded into integrated childcare.
According to actual needs, all localities can appropriately extend the length of time in kindergarten or provide childcare services, explore the implementation of holiday care services, etc., to solve the contradiction between parents' work and childcare, "We have a large number of college graduates every year, which can encourage more young people to enter the childcare service industry." ”
He Dan, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference:
The better gender equality is done,
Fertility levels will increase
On the eve of the National Two Sessions, He Dan, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the Chinese and Development Research Center, said in an interview that for the elimination of gender discrimination in the workplace, we cannot just shout slogans, and the construction of basic systems is particularly important, such as expanding the coverage of maternity insurance and strengthening the protection of birth groups.
Some experts have suggested that in reality, enterprises will suffer "employer penalties", that is, for enterprises, if they hire many women, they should consider: who will solve the treatment during marriage and childbearing? Who will replace her job after giving birth? It invisibly increases the burden on employers.
In this regard, He Dan pointed out, "The mainland has a maternity insurance system, which guarantees that women's wages and benefits during childbirth are paid by maternity insurance, and some places also return maternity insurance to employers who hire female employees to reduce the burden on enterprises." ”
"At present, the coverage of maternity insurance in mainland China is still very small, mainly for this part of the population participating in employee medical insurance. But now more and more young people choose flexible employment, many people do not participate in medical insurance, maternity insurance, so the next step of our social insurance to expand the coverage and strengthen the protection of the birth group. ”
"In addition, maternity protection is not just for women. We see that there are some explorations in some places, such as some places where maternity insurance is relatively surplus, and part of it is spent to allow men to extend 'paternity leave' or 'parental leave', which is also a good reform direction. ”
At the same time, she pointed out that in the process of influencing family fertility decisions, intergenerational support within the family and the equality of the division of labor between men and women are more important than the external environment. "Although the childbearing process is done by women, the childcare process must involve men."
He Dan also pointed out that from an international point of view, in the initial stage of promoting gender equality, the fertility level is rapidly declining, but in a mature stage of promoting gender equality, the fertility level is rising.
Does extending male maternity leave promote fertility?
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Source: CCTV Comprehensive Jiupai News, Tianjin Daily, China Youth Daily, Southern Metropolis Daily
Editor/Liao Yunqing
Review/Qiao Hong
Executive Producer/Zhou Zhifei