Pilot liberalization of fertility must first resolve "fertility anxiety"

　　A few days ago, the National Health Commission responded to the National People’s Congress’s suggestion on “Depopulation in the Northeast Region and Fully Liberalize the Restrictions on Fertility Policy”, believing that the Northeast Region can put forward a pilot program to implement a comprehensive fertility policy on the basis of in-depth research and evaluation.

Childbirth is an important matter of people's livelihood, and the response of the Health and Health Commission has stirred up a wave of waves, prompting heated discussions.

　　The population problem concerns the future of the country, involves hundreds of millions of families, and affects the public's nerves.

The National Fourteenth Five-Year Plan suggests that it is necessary to formulate a long-term population development strategy, optimize the fertility policy, and enhance the inclusiveness of the fertility policy.

This points out the direction for solving population and fertility problems.

　　At present, the process of population aging in our country continues to accelerate. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, it will enter a "moderately aging" society. By 2025, the number of elderly people aged 60 and over will exceed 300 million.

At the beginning of the founding of New China, the "baby boom" generation entered the retirement stage, and the reduction in labor supply will further expand.

　　On the one hand, it is accelerating its entry into an aging society; on the other hand, it is my country’s entry into a critical stage of national rejuvenation.

High-quality development is inseparable from high-quality population resources. To solve practical contradictions, active exploration and experimentation are needed, and a comprehensive and inclusive birth policy guidance and support is needed.

　　Since the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” released the “Comprehensive Two-Child” policy, there has been a brief birth peak, but the number of new populations has been “high first and then low”. By 2019, the natural population growth rate has dropped to 3.34‰. It is lower than 2015 before the launch of the "comprehensive two-child" policy.

　　"Let go" and still "unwilling to have children", indicating that policy restrictions are only one of the "birth blocking points", and it is worried that economic and social factors such as "affordable, unaffordable, poorly educated" are the bigger "blocks" affecting fertility. point".

　　First, we must reduce the cost of childbirth, nurturing, and education.

From check-ups and production to milk powder and confinement, these are not small expenses.

The care of children before the age of 3 is also a real problem that makes many young parents a headache.

The contradiction of educational resources in some areas has even appeared in kindergartens. Elementary and middle schools have become more prominent, and the price of school district housing has become a burden for many families.

　　Second, we must establish a workplace environment that is more conducive to fertility.

In many places, childbirth has become a “reduction item” for women in the workplace and an obstacle to their employment, development, and promotion.

Although the husband has paternity leave as required, it is "difficult to land", and it often becomes a "benefits on paper."

　　Therefore, the current focus of optimizing the fertility policy is not just to experiment with liberalizing policy restrictions, but to make up for shortcomings, strengths and weaknesses, and improve quality in public services.

Promote the construction of a supporting "package" public service system, reduce the cost of raising children, form a parent-friendly social environment, and improve the willingness of families to bear children and their ability to raise children.

　　Only by paying attention to the expectations of the masses, practicing the people-centered development thinking, eliminating the "blocking points" that restrict fertility one by one, and resolving the "fertility anxiety" of the masses, can the challenges brought about by the population problem be fundamentally solved.

　　Half a month to talk about commentator Xu Haitao