Youth Topics at the Two Sessions: Focus on Youth Fertility

The Communist Youth League of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference offers suggestions and suggestions for solving the worries of young people after childbirth

  At this year's National Two Sessions, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League has made recommendations, proposals, conference speeches, sector consultations and other means to give advice to the government, focusing on addressing the worries of young people about childbirth.

On the afternoon of March 7, a video conference was held at the fifth meeting of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Fu Zhenbang, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and secretary of the Central Secretariat of the Communist Youth League, represented the Communist Youth League community and delivered a speech at the conference entitled "Creating Conditions to Encourage Fertility to Promote Balanced and Sustainable Population Development" , calling on the law, policy support, women's rights, social culture, etc., to help young people reduce their burdens, create favorable conditions for young people to have children, and make pregnant young people willing to give birth, dare to give birth, and give birth to eugenics, and put forward some practical suggestions.

  According to the speech at the conference, at present, my country's population is characterized by "three lows and one high": the "green content" of the population continues to decline. In 2020, the population of young people aged 14-35 in my country will be about 400 million, accounting for 28.4% of the total population, a decrease from 2000. More than 90 million, down 11.1 percentage points.

The total fertility rate continues to decline. The total fertility rate of women of childbearing age in my country was 2.3 in 1990 and 1.3 in 2020, which is far below the international warning line of 1.5.

The marriage rate continues to decline and the age line for first marriage continues to rise. In 2020, the marriage rate in my country was 5.8‰, a decrease of 7.6 thousand points from 2000. The average age of first marriage for young people of the right age was 26.8 years old, an increase of 0.7 years in the past four years.

  The speech at the conference pointed out that if strong measures are not taken decisively, this "three lows and one high" will accelerate the process of my country's population aging and low birthrate, and will have a negative impact on the realization of the second centenary goal.

It is necessary to enhance the awareness of urgency, deeply understand the strategic urgency of population policy adjustment, clearly implement positive population policies and birth policies, and make greater efforts to encourage fertility and promote eugenics.

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  33-year-old Zhang Xiaobei had a very troublesome Spring Festival this year.

Her father, mother, father-in-law and mother-in-law took turns to do ideological work, hoping that she would have a second child.

"My husband and I are both only children and have a 6-year-old son. Back then, both parents emptied all their savings in order to buy a house for us. We have to support 4 elderly people. If we raise another child, I feel that sooner or later I will be Overwhelmed'." Zhang Xiaobei said.

  Zhang Xiaobei's colleague, Li Fang, also has the same anxiety about childbirth. "Repaying the mortgage every month, raising a child, life is already tight, and even if I have the idea of ​​having another child, I have to bow to reality."

  The speech at the conference introduced, "I can't get married, I can't have a baby", "I can't work faster, I don't have time to bring a baby", "There are four elders at the top, and N children at the bottom"... These "mountains" that weigh on the heads of young people make young people The concept of marriage, love, marriage and childbirth has undergone major changes, and there are more and more single and DINK families who "do not marry and have no children".

  Facts show that my country has entered the stage of "endogenous and autonomous low fertility" from "policy-restricted low fertility".

The academic community generally believes that if this trend is left unchecked, the sustainable development of my country's economy and society will face great difficulties in the future.

Establishing legal and policy orientations to encourage fertility

  The population problem can be described as the "bigger of the country".

In recent years, my country has adopted a series of fertility adjustment measures, but at present, the problem of population imbalance is still serious, and the problem of population structure is still prominent. It is imperative to achieve balanced development of the population.

  Zhang Xuying, deputy director and researcher of the China Population and Development Research Center, told reporters that in recent years, there have been four "10 million" phenomena in my country's population development: the number of marriages per year has fallen below 10 million, the number of births has approached 10 million, and the number of deaths has exceeded 10 million. , The number of induced abortions is close to 10 million.

Changes in population and marriage are similar to the phenomenon of insufficient demand and supply shocks in economics.

  At present, the main contradiction in my country's population field is the long-term structural contradiction caused by the rapid reduction in the size and proportion of the youth population.

The speech at the conference suggested that relevant laws such as the Population and Family Planning Law should be amended and released in a timely manner; the introduction of supporting policies with strong operability and strong effect should be accelerated; The balanced development of the population is included in the assessment system such as economic and social development planning, and the rapid decline of the youth population is slowed down.

Transform government functions and improve the public service system that encourages childbirth.

Learning from international experience, greatly increase the policy investment in encouraging young people to have children.

Actively build an all-round and full-chain supporting policy to encourage fertility

  Xia Mingfei, who had a strong DINK idea, had a child of his own last year, and recently had the idea of ​​having another child.

"In the past, considering the cost of having children and raising children, I felt that the pressure was too great, so I simply didn't want children."

But seeing the joy of his friends having children, he slowly changed his mind.

  Xia Mingfei said that although many places have introduced various measures, the speed of progress is relatively slow. "I hope that good policies will be implemented as soon as possible, so that more families in need can benefit as soon as possible, and further relieve young people's worries about childbirth."

  Relevant experts in the industry said, "Although childbirth is the result of family decision-making, the state adopts financial, taxation, insurance, education, housing, employment and other security measures to reduce the burden of family birth, parenting, and education, and the rational choice of individuals and families will follow. Change."

  Chen Zong, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and president of Beijing Yingshi Ruida Technology Co., Ltd., calculated an account for the reporter, "A female employee's maternity check, maternity leave, maternity leave to breastfeeding is about two years and two months, the company not only has to arrange replacement Employees will have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars more.”

  Chen Zong said: "I personally encourage marriage, love and childbirth, but if the childbirth cost is fully borne by the enterprise, the pressure on small, medium and micro enterprises is indeed very great. I hope to further improve the overall support of the childbirth support policy and promote the social sharing of childbearing costs. Units and enterprises that encourage employees to give birth are given preferential policies such as tax reduction and exemption.”

  Yang Ge, deputy secretary-general of the Research Center for Population Aging of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and associate researcher of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics, said that supporting a positive birth support policy system, building a birth-friendly society, effectively reducing birth, parenting, and education costs, guaranteeing Employment and re-employment rights after childbirth can release the family's willingness to bear children in an all-round way and fundamentally increase the fertility rate.

This requires the joint participation of the whole society to form a reasonable sharing mechanism.

  To this end, the conference speech suggested that we should adhere to the overall planning of fertility, parenting, and education, and improve the gold content and implementation of the package of policies to encourage fertility.

For example, formulate and implement special additional deduction or tax-exemption rules for individual income tax by dividing children; formulate and implement mortgage interest discount and rebate policies for families with multiple children, and eligible families with multiple children will be given priority to enjoy affordable rental housing, affordable housing and other housing security policies ; Give priority to ensuring that children from families with multiple children attend the same school in the same school; accelerate the construction of inclusive childcare services for 0-3 years old; vigorously develop socialized elderly care services; establish and improve the long-term payment mechanism for multi-child families with step-by-step maternity allowances.

In addition to national policies, local governments are allowed to independently formulate regional incentive and support policies.

Vigorously protect the rights of mothers and women's employment rights

  Recently, the "Implementation Plan of Jiangsu Province on Optimizing the Birth Policy to Promote the Long-term Balanced Development of the Population" was released, calling for reducing the cost of fertility, raising and education.

It mentioned: Strictly implement the maternity leave, nursing leave, breastfeeding leave and other systems to protect the legitimate rights and interests of women who give birth.

For couples who have children in accordance with the policy, the woman can extend maternity leave by 60 days to 158 days on the basis of the maternity leave stipulated by the state, and the man enjoys 15 days of nursing leave.

  Since the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the decision on revising the Population and Family Planning Law, localities have been "moving" one after another.

By the end of 2021, more than 20 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country have completed the revision of local family planning regulations.

The new regulations all over the country cover fertility, parenting, education and other aspects, but the more clear and more operational ones are generally “extended maternity leave” and “additional parental leave for both husband and wife”.

  However, the reporter learned that the increased fertility benefits in various places did not allow young people to truly enjoy the holiday red envelopes, but instead increased new concerns.

For example, more maternity leave is a good thing, but while many working women are happy, they can't help but worry: will it become more difficult for women to find employment?

How are the relevant rights and interests protected?

  Liu Mingfang from Anhui is struggling to find a job. "I participated in several interviews, and several interviewers directly asked questions about expected childbearing age, family and career conflicts, etc." The recent job search experience made Liu Mingfang understand that as a marriageable A job seeker of childbearing age, her entry should not be smooth.

  "In my opinion, getting married and having children will not affect work, but it seems that without adding a sentence 'there is no plan to get married and have children for the time being', it will not dispel the concerns of the employer." Having said this, Liu Mingfang sighed helplessly, "Extension Maternity leave may make companies more cautious when choosing female employees."

  In the interview, there are not many working women who have the same concerns as Liu Mingfang.

  Yu Qin, 36 years old this year, never expected that after reporting the news of her second child to the department leader, she would be marginalized in the workplace - not only did several key projects in charge of her be transferred to other colleagues, but also the bonus Was "cut in half".

"The leader is always sneering at me intentionally or not, and his attitude has also affected the attitude of other colleagues toward me." Yu Qin told reporters sadly that the difficulties in the workplace have diluted the joy of giving birth to a new life. She worries that after taking maternity leave, the situation will still be would be worse.

  In response to this phenomenon, the conference proposed to vigorously protect the rights and interests of mothers and women's employment; establish and improve the system of respecting mothers and rewarding mothers who have more children; strengthen legal regulations on discrimination against women in employment, and protect women's wages and welfare during childbearing; Appropriate incentive policies to support enterprises and other employers to hire female employees; promote gender equality in families, research and formulate a reasonable system of paternity leave and parental leave, and encourage men to share the responsibility for child care; improve women's pregnancy and childbirth experience, popularize childbirth analgesia and Include it in health insurance.

Focus on creating a social atmosphere that encourages fertility

  "I'm full of expectations for love, but I don't dare to go into marriage." Chen Yi has a knot in her heart. After breaking up with her first love, she can no longer contact other boys.

At 36 years old, she is still single, and her parents can only worry about it.

  Psychological consultant Zhang Lei told reporters: "For a person like Chen Yi, the key is to untie her knot so that she can enter a beautiful marriage." It is selling anxiety and making young people feel afraid of marriage. In fact, real life is not that terrible. Even if there are problems, both parties can improve the relationship through appropriate means."

  In addition to those who are discouraged from marriage like Chen Yi, there are also women who want to have children but miss the best reproductive age due to various factors such as work.

40-year-old Li Chunchun (pseudonym) regrets it a lot now, "Before the age of 35, my job was on a steady rise, and I always thought about finishing this project before starting to prepare for pregnancy. ".

  Li Chunchun is a patient of Zhao Ruihua, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the Department of Gynecology of Guang'anmen Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. "I learned from Dr. Zhao that women should complete their fertility plans at the age of 28-35."

  Zhao Ruihua, who has always been concerned about promoting youth fertility, told reporters: "In my outpatient clinic, there are many women like Li Chunchun." In recent years, she has insisted on doing popular science propaganda, advocating a healthy lifestyle, advocating age-appropriate marriage and childbirth, and improving youth fertility. common sense.

  Zhang Hui, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of Yunnan Jianguang Law Firm, said that the fertility policy is not a single social policy, but is also affected by social and cultural factors.

For example, social phenomena such as sky-high betrothal gifts make marriageable young people discouraged, let alone fertility.

  In response to this problem, the conference proposed to strengthen cultural guidance and social propaganda, widely advocate population views, marriage and love views, fertility views, and family views that are compatible with the fertility orientation; Public opinion, to prevent the over-exaggeration of fear of marriage and pregnancy and other emotions, to minimize the anxiety, doubts and concerns of young people in marriage and childbirth, and to vigorously optimize the fertility-friendly social environment.

  It is reported that the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League submitted a group proposal to the Fifth Session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on the "improvement of supporting policies for encouraging young people to have children" based on the results of the face-to-face concentrated activities of the "Communist Youth League and the deputies to the National People's Congress and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference" in 2022. Actively carry out policy advocacy and social advocacy.

  Around the reporters of China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily Source: China Youth Daily