China is launching a new program dedicated to marriage and family in an effort to combat fertility decline and demographic changes.
The program will “focus on tasks including promoting marriage and having children at appropriate ages, encouraging parents to share child-rearing responsibilities, and curbing high ‘bride prices’ and other outdated customs,” according to officials.
Yao Ying, vice president of the China Family Planning Association, said the move is “expected to take innovative and proactive measures to help foster childbearing-friendly atmospheres and contribute to advancing Chinese modernization with the support from the high-quality development of the population.”
At current rates, China’s population may drop below 1 billion people by 2080.
Reporting from Summit News:
Chinese municipal governments are making an effort across the country to hold job fair-style events where they hand out quick and easy marriage licences to encourage couples to tie the knot in order to address the “low willingness to marry and have children” given the financial burden this now places on couples.
