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What’s the best birth control: The Best Choices for Breastfeeding Moms

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The Best Choices for Breastfeeding Moms

Your new baby is here, and you know that you’re not ready to get pregnant again. So what type of birth control is best while you breastfeed?

You have a little time to decide. Most doctors recommend that new moms not have sex until after the 6-week checkup. So, you may not even need birth control before your baby is 6 weeks old.

When the time comes, you’ll have a lot of options for contraception.

Birth Control Pills

You may have heard that some could curb your milk supply, which would make it harder to feed your baby. It’s true that some hormones may have that effect. But not all do.

There are two types of birth control pills:

  • Combination ones include the hormones estrogen and progestin
  • Others only have progestin. Some people call these the “mini-pill.” 

Estrogen may mean you make less milk. So when you tell your doctor that you’re breastfeeding, they’ll probably prescribe the mini-pill. It shouldn’t affect your milk supply at all.

If your doctor thinks combination pills are better for you than the mini-pill, they’ll likely wait 5 or 6 weeks, before they prescribe one for you. 

There’s another reason why you may need to wait before you take combination pills — they make blood clots more likely in the first few weeks after you have a baby. So, it’s wise for all women — even those who bottle-feed — to hold off on them during the first month after childbirth.

IUDs

If you want long-term birth-control that isn’t permanent, you may want to consider an IUD (intrauterine device). Your doctor can insert it into your uterus after you give birth or 6 weeks later during an office visit. You don’t have to remember to take a pill daily or do anything special before sex for an IUD to work.

Two types are available: one that’s copper and another that contains the hormone progestin. Either one is fine for nursing moms. The copper IUD has no hormones to affect your milk supply. The other has low levels of progestin, which won’t cause problems with your supply.

You may want to wait until your 6-week checkup to get your IUD inserted. If you get it right after your baby is born, there’s a chance that your body will push it out.

Implants, Injections, and Patches

These hormone-based birth control methods last longer than a daily pill, and some won’t reduce your milk supply.

Implants. You can prevent pregnancy for up to 3 years with a special stick that’s the size of a match. Your doctor implants it just under your skin in your upper arm. This form of birth control only has the hormone progestin, so it doesn’t affect your milk supply.

Injections. Your doctor can give you birth control shots every 3 months. They have more progestin than implants do.

Patches. You peel a birth control patch and stick it on your back, arm, stomach or butt for a week at a time. The patch contains two hormones, estrogen and progestin, like combination birth control pills. Your doctor may not think it’s best for you while you nurse a baby. If they prescribe it, wait 6 weeks, until your milk supply is set.

Vaginal ring. You place it inside your vagina and keep it there for 3 weeks at a time. This form of birth control has estrogen and progestin. Because you’re breastfeeding, your doctor may not want you to use it for the first 6 weeks after you have your baby.

Barrier Methods

These devices, which have no hormones, include:

Condoms. They’re easy to use and can prevent pregnancy if you use them the right way every time. If you also use a spermicide (a foam or cream that kills sperm), you’ll lower your chances of getting pregnant even more. Spermicide doesn’t have any hormones in it.

Diaphragm. Your doctor can fit you for it 6 or more weeks after your baby is born. That gives your body enough time to get back to normal after childbirth. If you had a diaphragm before your pregnancy, ask your doctor whether it still fits. Many women need a new size after childbirth.

Cervical cap. This device covers the cervix (the opening to your uterus). If you already have one from before you were pregnant, ask your doctor to check to see if you can still use it. Your cervix expands quite a bit during childbirth, so you may need a new one.

Birth Control Methods & Options

Birth control is how you prevent pregnancy. There are lots of different birth control options out there. We’re here to help you figure it all out.

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Spot On Period Tracker

Spot On is a period and birth control tracking mobile app available for Android and iOS phones that can help you stay on top of your birth control method and track your cycle. The app provides customized appointment reminders, and puts birth control and sexual health resources from the experts at Planned Parenthood at your fingertips.

Discouraged by the Cost of Birth Control? We Can Help

We do our best to help you afford the birth control method you choose — no matter what your situation is. Whether you have your own health insurance, are on your parents’ plan, or don’t have insurance at all, we’ve got you covered. Find a health center near you.

  • Many insurance plans, including Medicaid, cover Planned Parenthood services.

  • We’ll help you navigate your state’s health insurance plans. Learn more

  • Is health insurance not an option for you? We can get you set up with state or locally funded programs that help cover the cost of your birth control.

Accidents Happen. That’s Why There’s Emergency Contraception

Emergency contraception is a safe and effective way to prevent pregnancy up to 5 days after unprotected sex. There are a few different kinds. Find out which one is right for you.

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Where Can I Buy Birth Control Pills & How Much Do They Cost?

The pill is easy to get, but you need a prescription. Here’s the scoop on where to get birth control pills, how much they cost, and how you might be able to get them for free or low cost.

How much do birth control pills cost?

Prices vary depending on whether you have health insurance, or if you qualify for Medicaid or other government programs that cover the cost of birth control pills. For most brands, 1 pill pack lasts for 1 month, and each pack can cost anywhere from $0-$50. But they’re totally free with most health insurance plans, or if you qualify for some government programs.  In most states, you can even get birth control pills prescribed and mailed to you using the Planned Parenthood Direct app.

You may also need to pay for an appointment with a doctor or nurse to get a prescription for the pill. This visit can cost anywhere from $35–$250. But under the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), most insurance plans must cover doctor’s visits that are related to birth control. Learn more about health insurance and birth control.

If you’re worried about cost, check with your local Planned Parenthood health center to find out if they can hook you up with birth control that fits your budget. Depending on where you live, you may also be able to get birth control starting at $20/pack using the Planned Parenthood Direct app.

How can I get birth control pills for free?

There’s a good chance you can get low-cost or free birth control pills if you have health insurance. Because of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), most insurance plans must cover all methods of birth control at no cost to you, including the pill. However, some plans only cover certain brands of pills or generic versions. Your health insurance provider can tell you which types of birth control they pay for. Your doctor may also be able to help you get the birth control you want covered by health insurance. Learn more about health insurance and affordable birth control.

If you don’t have health insurance, you’ve still got options. Depending on your income and legal status in the U.S., you could qualify for Medicaid or other government programs that can help you pay for birth control and other health care.

Planned Parenthood works to provide services you need, whether or not you have insurance. Most Planned Parenthood health centers accept Medicaid and other health insurance. And many charge less depending on your income. Contact your local Planned Parenthood health center for more information.

Where can I get birth control pills?

You need a prescription for birth control pills. You can get a prescription from a doctor or nurse at a doctor’s office, health clinic, or your local Planned Parenthood health center. In a few states, you can even get a prescription online or directly from a pharmacist.

During your visit, a nurse or doctor will talk with you about your medical history, check your blood pressure, and give you whatever exams you may need. Most people don’t need pelvic exams in order to get birth control pills. Your nurse or doctor will help you decide what’s right for you based on your medical history.

You may be able to get your birth control pills right away during your appointment. Or you’ll get a prescription from the nurse or doctor, and you’ll go pick up your pills at a drugstore or pharmacy.

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Are Birth Control Pills Effective?

When you take the pill every single day, it’s great at preventing pregnancy. But missing pills, taking certain medications, and other things may make it not work as well.

How effective is the birth control pill?

If you use it perfectly, the pill is 99% effective. But people aren’t perfect and it’s easy to forget or miss pills — so in reality the pill is about 91% effective. That means about 9 out of 100 pill users get pregnant each year.

The better you are about taking your pill every day and starting your pill packs on time, the better the pill will work. You can use our birth control app to remind you to take your pills when you need to. But there’s a very small chance that you could still get pregnant, even if you always take your pills correctly.

If you want a method that’s even better at preventing pregnancy, check out IUDs and the implant. They’re the best at preventing pregnancy.  But if you decide the pill is right for you, make sure you always take your pills on time so they work as well as possible.

What lowers the birth control pill’s effectiveness?

The main thing that makes the pill not work is not taking it every day. But other things, like vomiting or having diarrhea for more than 48 hours (2 days) may lower how well the pill prevents pregnancy. 

These medicines or supplements can also make the pill not work as well:

• The antibiotic Rifampin (other antibiotics don’t make the pill less effective)

• The antifungal Griseofulvin (other antifungals don’t make the pill less effective)

• Certain HIV medicines

• Certain anti-seizure medicines (these are sometimes also used to treat psychiatric disorders like bipolar disorder)

• The herb St. John’s Wort

If you take any of these while you’re on the pill, use condoms as a backup method. Switch to a different method of birth control if you’ll be on them for a long time.

Your nurse or doctor can help you decide if there’s any reason the birth control pill won’t work well for you.

How long do birth control pills take to work?

It depends on when you start taking them and what type of pills you’re using. You can start taking the birth control pill any day of the month. But depending on when you start and the kind of pill you’re using, you may need to use a backup birth control method — like condoms — for up to 7 days.

Combination Pills (COCs)

  • If you start combination pills within 5 days after the first day of your period, you’ll be protected from pregnancy right away. For example, if you get your period Monday morning, you can start the pill anytime until Saturday morning and be protected from pregnancy that same day.

  • If you start combination pills any other time, you need to take the pill for 7 days before you’ll be protected from pregnancy. So use another method of birth control — like a condom — if you have penis-in-vagina sex during your first week on the pill.

Progestin-Only Pills (POPs or Mini Pills)

  • You can start progestin-only pills any day of the month. You’ll be protected from pregnancy after 48 hours (2 days). So use another method of birth control (like condoms) if you have penis-in-vagina sex during the first 48 hours.

  • Slynd (a different type of progestin-only pill) is the exception. If you start taking Slynd on day 1 of your period, you’ll be protected from pregnancy right away. If you start taking Slynd at any other time in your cycle, use another method of birth control (like condoms) if you have penis-in-vagina sex during the first 48 hours

Your nurse or doctor can help you figure out the best time to start your birth control pills, and when they’ll start working.

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Birth Control Pills | The Pill

How Does the Birth Control Pill Work and is it Safe to Use | Planned Parenthood Video

What is the birth control pill?

Birth control pills are a kind of medicine with hormones. Birth control pills come in a pack, and you take 1 pill every day. The pill is safe, affordable, and effective if you always take your pill on time. Besides preventing pregnancy, the pill has lots of other health benefits, too.

There are two kinds of birth control pills:

  • Combination pills (aka combined oral contraceptives, or COCs)

  • Progestin-only pills (aka POPs or mini pills)

How do birth control pills prevent pregnancy?

The birth control pill works by stopping sperm from joining with an egg. When sperm joins with an egg it’s called fertilization.

The hormones in the pill safely stop ovulation. No ovulation means there’s no egg for sperm to fertilize, so pregnancy can’t happen.

The pill’s hormones also thicken the mucus on the cervix. This thicker cervical mucus blocks sperm so it can’t swim to an egg — kind of like a sticky security guard.

How do I make the pill work best for me?

Forgetting pills, losing the pack, not refilling your prescription on time — these are the main reasons why people might get pregnant when they use the pill. It’s good to plan ahead and think about the best way for you to use the pill correctly. Here are some ways to help you remember to take your pills every day:

  • Use our birth control reminder app or set an alarm on your phone.

  • Keep your pill pack next to something you use every day (like your toothbrush or phone charger).

  • Keep your pills in your bag so they’re always with you.

  • Be pill buddies with friends or family members who also take medicine every day, and help each other remember.

  • Your partner can help remind you.

Do whatever works to help you take your pill on time, all the time. Depending on where you live, you may be able to order and refill your pills online through the Planned Parenthood Direct app.

Want to be super duper sure you don’t accidentally get pregnant? You can also use a condom every time you have penis-in-vagina sex. That way you’ll be protected from STDs too.

Does the pill protect against STDs?

Nope. The pill is really good at preventing pregnancy, but it won’t protect you from sexually transmitted infections.

Luckily, using condoms every time you have sex really lowers your chances of getting or spreading STDs. Condoms also protect against pregnancy — so using condoms + birth control pills together gives protection from STDs AND awesome pregnancy-preventing power.

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What Are the Best and Worst Birth Control Options?

When it comes to birth control, women have more options than ever. But more choices mean there’s a lot more to consider. So how can you choose which pregnancy prevention method is right for you?

The most important step is to weigh your options with your doctor. You’ll want to find out how each form of birth control will affect your health, says Sara Newmann, MD, associate professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. Factors like high blood pressure, your smoking habits, and a history of breast cancer should all have an impact on your pick.

The most popular forms of birth control in the United States, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, are oral contraception, tubal ligation (having your tubes tied), and condoms. While no one method is foolproof, oral contraception can do a pretty good job of preventing pregnancy: For every 100 women who are using oral contraception, nine will become pregnant.

The cost of birth control depends on your insurer and your method. Many plans currently don’t require you to pay anything for your prescription, but there are some that do. Without insurance, oral contraception can cost around $50 a month; a vaginal ring $80. A IUD can cost up to $1,000 if you’re not covered.

But what about weight gain? A review published in January 2014 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews analyzed 49 studies and found that going on the pill or using the patch made no significant difference in weight for most women; the largest notable weight gain found, when studies did find it, was nearly four pounds. In the 21 studies that provided data on why women stopped taking birth control, 0 to 5 percent of women said they stopped because of weight gain.

If you do experience weight gain, the researchers say it’s highly unlikely that your birth control is causing it.  Unlikely, that is, unless you’ve had the birth control shot, which has been shown to increase weight in about one-quarter of the women who use it. If you’re on a different method than the shots, and you feel heavier, say experts, it’s probably water weight, and not an actual increase in fat.

What’s not a myth, on the other hand, is that oral contraception containing both estrogen and progestin, along with other medication, can help treat severe cases of acne. The hormone surge introduced by the pill overwhelms the amount of other, oil-producing hormones, such as testosterone, that are circulating.

Before you meet with your doc to discuss what plan is best for you, take a look at our list of pros and cons for 11 birth control methods.

Additional reporting by Carlene Bauer.

Choosing a birth control pill

Choosing a birth control pill

Choosing the right birth control pill can be a challenge. Learn the pros and cons of different types of birth control pills.

By Mayo Clinic Staff

If you’re considering taking birth control pills, you’re not alone. Birth control pills are some of the most popular contraceptives. And for good reasons — they’re effective and easy to use. The variety of birth control pills available, though, can seem daunting. Fortunately, they can be sorted into just a few categories to make it easier to understand your options.

What are the different kinds of birth control pills?

There are two main kinds of birth control pills:

  • Combination birth control pills. This type of pill contains both estrogen and progestin. There are a wide variety of combination pills to choose from, depending on how often you want to have periods and the dose of hormones that is best for you.
  • The minipill. This type of pill contains only progestin. The minipill doesn’t offer as many choices as combination pills. In each pack of pills, all the pills contain the same amount of progestin and all the pills are active. The progestin dose in a minipill is lower than the progestin dose in any combination pill.

Combination birth control pills come in different mixtures of active and inactive pills, depending on how often you want to have periods:

  • Conventional. Conventional packs usually contain 21 active pills and seven inactive pills, or 24 active pills and four inactive pills. Bleeding occurs every month when you take the inactive pills.
  • Continuous dosing or extended cycle. These packs typically contain 84 active pills and seven inactive pills. Bleeding generally occurs only four times a year, during the time when you take the inactive pills. Formulations that contain only active pills — eliminating bleeding — also are available.

Combination birth control pills are also categorized according to whether the dose of hormones in the active pills stays the same or varies:

  • Monophasic. In this type of combination birth control pill, each active pill contains the same amounts of estrogen and progestin.
  • Multiphasic. In this type of combination birth control pill, the amounts of hormones in active pills vary.

Most combination birth control pills contain 10 to 35 micrograms of ethinyl estradiol, a kind of estrogen. Women who are sensitive to hormones may benefit from taking a pill that contains a dose of estrogen at the lower end of this range. However, low-dose pills may result in more breakthrough bleeding — bleeding or spotting between periods — than higher dose pills.

How do the different birth control pills work?

Combination birth control pills prevent your ovaries from releasing an egg. They also slow an egg’s progress through the fallopian tubes, thicken cervical mucus and thin the lining of the uterus (endometrium). All of these actions help keep sperm from joining the egg.

The minipill slows an egg’s progress through the fallopian tubes, thickens cervical mucus and thins the endometrium — all of which help prevent sperm from reaching the egg. The minipill sometimes also suppresses ovulation.

Are all kinds of birth control pills appropriate for everyone?

No. Your doctor will ask about your medical history and any medications you take to determine which birth control pill is right for you.

Your doctor may discourage use of combination birth control pills if you:

  • Have just given birth
  • Are older than age 35 and smoke
  • Have poorly controlled high blood pressure
  • Have a blood clotting disorder or a history of deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism
  • Have a history of breast cancer
  • Have a history of stroke or heart disease
  • Have diabetes-related complications
  • Have liver or gallbladder disease
  • Have a history of migraines with aura
  • Have unexplained uterine bleeding
  • Will be immobilized for a prolonged period due to major surgery
  • Take St. John’s wort, or anticonvulsant or anti-tuberculous agents

Your doctor may discourage use of the minipill if you:

  • Have breast cancer
  • Have certain liver diseases
  • Have unexplained uterine bleeding
  • Take anticonvulsant or anti-tuberculous agents

What are the pros and cons of combination pills?

Pros

  • Easily reversed method of birth control if you hope to get pregnant
  • Relief from premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
  • Less severe menstrual cramps (dysmenorrhea)
  • Improvement in acne
  • Shorter, lighter and more predictable periods, or fewer or no periods
  • Reduction in heavy bleeding (menorrhagia) and related anemia
  • Reduced symptoms of endometriosis
  • Lowered risk of ovarian, endometrial and colorectal cancers
  • Possible positive effect on bone mineral density
  • Improvement in unwanted hair growth (hirsutism) caused by polycystic ovary syndrome

Cons

  • Skipping pills or taking them late may reduce effectiveness
  • No protection against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV
  • Increased risk of high cholesterol, heart attack and stroke
  • Increased risk of blood clots, especially for smokers and women older than 35 years of age, with a slightly greater risk of blood clots linked to pills that contain higher doses of estrogen
  • Increased risk of cervical cancer and breast cancer for women who are currently taking combined birth control pills, but this risk appears to gradually decline to normal levels once you stop taking the pills
  • Side effects such as irregular bleeding, bloating, breast tenderness, nausea, depression, weight gain and headache

What are the pros and cons of the minipill?

Pros

  • Easily reversed method of birth control if you hope to get pregnant
  • Can be taken even if you have certain health problems that increase the risks of taking combined pills, such as blood clots, migraines, high blood pressure or a high risk of heart disease
  • Are less likely than combined pills to interfere with breast-feeding
  • Lowered risk of endometrial cancer

Cons

  • Must be taken at the same time every day — if you skip a pill or take a pill more than 3 hours late, you need to use a backup form of birth control for at least two days
  • No protection against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV
  • Side effects such as irregular menstrual bleeding, ovarian cysts, decreased libido, headache, breast tenderness, acne, weight gain, depression and hirsutism
  • Slightly increased risk that if pregnancy occurs, the fertilized egg will implant outside the uterus (ectopic pregnancy)

What’s the bottom line?

You have many options for birth control. If you choose to take birth control pills, work with your health care provider to decide which type of birth control pill is right for you.

 

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Show references

  1. Hatcher RA, et al., eds. Contraceptive Technology. 21st ed. Ayer Company Publishers; 2018.
  2. Hatcher RA, et al. Managing Contraception 2019-2020: For your pocket. 15th ed. Bridging the Gap Foundation; 2020.
  3. Oral contraceptives and cancer risk. National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/hormones/oral-contraceptives-fact-sheet. Accessed Oct. 14, 2019.
  4. AskMayoExpert. Contraception. Mayo Clinic; 2019.
  5. Bartz DA, et al. Combined estrogen-progestin contraception: Side effects and health concerns. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/search. Accessed Oct. 28, 2019.
  6. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Practice Bulletin No. 206: Use of hormonal contraception in women with coexisting medical conditions. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2019; doi:10.1097/AOG.0000000000003072.
  7. Burnett TL (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic. Jan. 2, 2020.

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90,000 Strict demographic regime – Weekly “Kommersant” – Kommersant

The demographic situation is one of the most volatile and difficult to predict. For example, in China, which for forty years limited the birth rate, now they speak louder about the complete abolition of control over the number of children in the family, while in India, the authorities, on the contrary, are looking for new incentives in order to convince Indian women to give birth to no more than two children.

SERGEY MANUKOV

The Celestial Empire is preparing for the complete abolition of birth control.In the draft of the new civil code, any mention of birth control has disappeared, which may indicate the abolition of laws regulating the number of children in a family. Members of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC, parliament) are currently considering the draft of the new code, and it is expected to be adopted at the spring session of the NPC in March 2020.

A number of Chinese media outlets write about the draft of the new civil code, including the official organ of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the People’s Republic of China, Procuratorate Daily.The publication does not say whether all restrictions on the number of children in Chinese families will be lifted, which is most likely, or the existing limit will be increased by one or two children, which is now equal to two children per family.

Along with the removal of all references to birth control, the draft civil code contains other innovations. It is proposed, for example, to force divorcing couples to think for another month before filing a divorce, as well as to introduce punishment for sexual harassment in the workplace, according to the government agency Xinhua.By the way, sexual harassment at work in the PRC happens no less often than in other countries, but earlier they preferred not to talk about them, like about many other things. Everything has changed in recent years. Suffice it to say that now in China, the #MeToo movement is rapidly gaining popularity, whose members share their memories of similar harassment from their lives.

The intention to completely abandon control over the number of children in the family is indirectly evidenced by the recent closure of three departments in the National Health Commission that were directly involved in family planning.They were replaced by a new department – the Committee for Monitoring the Population and Family Development, which will be responsible for increasing the birth rate. By the way, until March of this year, the name of the commission also contained the words “family planning”. Now they are not there either.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Mao Zedong, came to power in the vast country in the late 1940s. At that time, the idea of ​​a great helmsman dominated in the highest echelons of power – “strength is in numbers.” Mao told Chinese women to have as many children as possible. Women with more than five children were awarded the Mother Heroine medal, they were respected and financially encouraged. As a result of this policy, about 200 million people were born in China in 1950-1960, that is, compared to the year of the founding of the PRC (1949), when the population was 542 million people, it has grown by more than a third.

However, ten years later, the authorities got scared. In 1973, the PRC State Council (government) adopted a revolutionary family planning document. Its essence boiled down to limiting the number of children in Chinese families to two.Moreover, the age difference between the children had to be at least four years.

Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, even stated that for the successful development of the economy, it is necessary to limit the rapid growth of the population. Six years later, so that the population of China did not exceed 1.2 billion people by the end of the twentieth century, the famous “one child rule” was adopted.

This rule was most severely applied in rural areas, where there were especially many large families. Women who became pregnant a second time were strongly encouraged to have an abortion.If the family insisted on keeping the child, a huge fine awaited her. Usually the fine was three times the family’s annual income, but there were cases when the stubborn were fined five or even ten times.

Since January 1, 2014, China has officially approved the “electoral policy of two children”, which allowed having a second child if one of the parents was the only child in the family.

Previously, this exception was only valid for families in which both parents were the only children.

Two years later, all Chinese families were allowed to have two children. Talk of further easing birth control erupted with renewed vigor in August after the China Post published a sketch of a 2019 (Chinese year of the pig) postage stamp depicting a family of two adult pigs and three cheerful piglets.

The recent proposal by two Chinese scholars to force childless families and families with one child to pay a special tax to the Fertility Fund sparked a new wave of controversy over fertility policies.

By introducing the exemptions effective January 1, 2016, the authorities hoped that this measure would lead to an additional 3 million newborns annually from 2016 to 2021. However, there was no spike in the birth rate. On the contrary, due to economic problems, not all families, even in rural areas, rushed to have a second child, as Beijing hoped.

The birth rate, contrary to all expectations, dropped to “catastrophically low”. According to a recent study by one of China’s largest online recruiting centers, Zhaopin.com, about 40% of working childless women do not want to give birth, and about two-thirds of Chinese people who already have a child do not want to have a second.

In 2016, 17.9 million babies were born in mainland China, just 1.3 million more than the previous year. The growth turned out to be more than two times lower than planned. The situation with the birth rate was even worse last year. The number of newborns, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of the PRC, decreased by 3.5%, to 17.2 million instead of the planned 20 million or more, and the number of newborns per thousand people decreased from 12.95 in 2016 to 12.43 in 2017. m.

Naturally, the State Council is very worried about the low birth rate and the failure of expectations of its increase as a result of the abolition of the “one child rule”. Disappointing statistics forced the authorities to introduce subsidies for young families with more than one child, as well as reduce a number of taxes for them and take other measures to stimulate the growth of the birth rate. But the whole trouble with these measures is that in Beijing they forgot the golden rule, which the Chinese have followed since time immemorial: “be able to wait and take your time without haste.”

“The government is facing a colossal demographic challenge: the workforce is shrinking and the population is aging rapidly,” explains Mary Gallagher, professor of political science at the University of Michigan.

Gallagher sees a serious danger that the Chinese authorities may now try to raise the birth rate as aggressively as four decades ago, when high birth rates were fought.Such a policy, she is convinced, will not lead to any good. According to the American political scientist, it will deal a very strong blow to Chinese women, to their position in the labor market, in society and in the family.

Scientists have warned that one cannot expect tangible results from weakening or even abolishing birth control within two to three years. Last year’s statistics showed the correctness of these predictions. So you have to wait …

Beauty contest as a way to find a bride

The main task – to slow down the growth rate of China’s population – has been fulfilled by the “one child rule”.It, according to Beijing, has prevented at least 400 million new Chinese from being born in four decades and has averted food and resource problems.

China is now the second largest economy on the planet. The Celestial Empire is rapidly catching up with the United States, and has already surpassed them in a number of important indicators. However, Beijing has clearly overdone its efforts to lower its birth rate.

The authorities rightly fear that an aging and shrinking workforce will further slow economic development, and that gender imbalance, another big problem in Chinese society exacerbated by family planning, will lead to an increase in social instability, which is still the most feared in Beijing.

There are over 200 million single adult men and women in this vast country. The vast majority of them want to start a family, but cannot find a partner or partner. It is not surprising that the PRC has the largest market for marriage services on the planet.

The “One Child Rule” further reinforced the centuries-old tendency towards sons and daughters as almost a failure. In addition, the growth of prosperity makes the Chinese more choosy in the choice of partners.

As a result of the short-sighted policy of the authorities, a situation has arisen when there are 100 women out of 114 men. There are 34 million more Chinese than Chinese women. This is, for a minute, the entire population, including the elderly and babies in countries such as, say, Canada, Iraq or Morocco. There were 697.28 million men in China as of January 1, 2014, and only 663.44 million women were

Importing brides from the DPRK or Cambodia does not solve the problem. Not without crime. The UN has noted an increase in human trafficking in recent years in China, especially in rural areas.

The economic boom has exacerbated the gender problem, separating people and pulling them out of villages and small towns. For many centuries, parents have been looking for grooms and brides for their children in families with the same income and social status, but the rapid development of the economy has greatly changed the personal life of the Chinese. There are tens of thousands of companies and courses in the search for brides and grooms in the country.

Naturally, the Internet and social networks are very active in this direction. The largest social platform where you can try to find a partner is Baihe. She has over 300 million subscribers and 3 thousand employees. They have a lot of work. They travel all over China and tirelessly help Chinese people to start families. Baihe employees deliver bouquets of flowers and gifts to lovers day and night. They even work as private investigators and catch cheating spouses.

Baihe also solves financial problems.Employees check the financial situation of potential spouses, negotiate loans for buying a house or apartment, organizing a wedding, and much more. The profit of companies in the marriage services market is approaching $ 1 billion.

The head office of Almaznaya Lyubov, an elite consolidated agency, is located in Shanghai. The agency has 5 million clients who pay an average of $ 15 thousand per month for services.

Of course, there are not many clients like the one whom the agency calls “Mr. Rich”.At least for now. The rich man is 47 years old, he paid the agency 1 million yuan (more than $ 145 thousand) for a one-year contract, according to which “Diamond Love” is obliged to provide him with at least five candidates a month to choose from. He has a lot of requirements for his future wife. At least, over the past time, he has already rejected fifty brides. Every week this rich man calls his personal consultant to find out who was prepared for him this time.

The richer the client, the higher his requests. One of these rich people, for example, carefully studied the database of “Diamond Love”, consisting of 3 thousand people.more or less unmarried women meeting his requirements, and rejected all of them.

“Bride Hunters” from the agency, knowing neither sleep nor rest, prowl universities, resorts and, of course, shops in search of brides. Once “Diamond Love” even organized the “Oriental Lady” beauty contest with obligatory performances in bikinis and dances, in which hundreds of girls participated. They didn’t know that the jury was headed by a client of the agency, who thus hoped to find a wife.

The social status of the Chinese is determined by the system of registration at the place of residence – hukou.Hukou divides people into two categories – rural and urban. Residents of cities, especially large ones, have many advantages: participation in the elections of a representative of their district, the opportunity to open a bank account, purchase of real estate at lower prices, access to cheaper and high-quality education and medicine, retirement pensions, and much more. Not surprisingly, no first date for potential spouses is complete without the obligatory question of hukou.

The government understands very well what a threat to social stability in Chinese society can be posed by bachelors who are dissatisfied with their marital status in particular and their whole life in general.The authorities pay great attention to the market for marriage services, but so far they are losing out to private business in the quality of services.

From the cemetery down the aisle

The importance of traditions in modern China, in particular the tradition of procreation, is evidenced, among other things, by the eerie rite of Minhun that has survived to this day.

Family and marriage have always been one of the most important places in Chinese life. In the 21st century, little has changed in this regard. And today, as well as a thousand years ago, it is believed that a man lived his life in vain if he does not have a family and children.That is why the death of a single man has always been considered a tragedy in the Celestial Empire.

A solitary funeral has been considered a harbinger of trouble for a deceased Chinese bachelor for nearly three thousand years. In poor rural areas, this belief has safely survived to this day: in order for a deceased bachelor to feel comfortable in the afterlife and not be disturbed by evil spirits, before the funeral he must be married and put in the grave with his life partner, or in this case, death. The corpse of a companion, according to legend, not only protects the deceased from evil spirits, but also prevents him from wandering restlessly between the two worlds.

After coming to power, the communists banned weddings for the dead, but the custom has survived to this day. The relatives of the deceased go to great expense in order not to break the ancient tradition. The most tenacious creepy customs turned out to be in the north-west of the country, on the Loess Plateau located in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, in the provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi.

Historians believe that Minghun dates back to the Zhou Dynasty (1045-221 BC).BC BC), or during the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). Curiously, in recent years, it seems that the popularity of Ming Hoon in Shanxi has clearly increased due to the growing prosperity of the population. Over the past five years, more than three dozen cases of desecration of graves and theft of bodies for burying ghosts have been recorded in this province.

The harsh reality pushes the Shanxi and Shaanxi people to observe this custom. The gender imbalance in these provinces is the highest in the Middle Kingdom.There are counties where every fourth adult man is unmarried.

The most appreciated, of course, are “real brides”, that is, women who have just passed away. The price depends primarily on the safety of the corpse, age and appearance.

Craftsmen reinforce already decomposed bodies and skeletons with steel reinforcement. Then they are dressed and buried again, so that after a while they can be dug up again and sold to unsuspecting customers for a lot of money. The cost of the most expensive “brides” can reach 100 thousand.yuan (almost $ 15 thousand). For the Loess Plateau, where the peasants’ annual income now rarely exceeds 20,000 yuan, this is a lot of money.

The organizers of the weddings of the dead, which, by the way, are held in the same way as the weddings of living people, are not afraid of severe punishment. In China, high-profile trials regularly take place on charges of desecrating graves in order to search for corpses suitable for Minghun. Moreover, there are still people who want to make money on Minhun, but believe that digging up a corpse in a cemetery is more troublesome than just … killing a woman.

Ironically, the authorities themselves are in some way encouraging Minghun. Theft of bodies is considered a criminally punishable crime, but the work of special “marriage agents” organizing such marriages, for some reason, is not punishable by law.

The custom of not going into the afterlife alone is found not only among the Chinese. Minghun, for example, is similar to sati, an Indian ritual when his wives are burned along with a deceased man. Sati was equated with a criminal offense 30 years ago, but it is found in remote rural areas of India today.

A custom similar to sati and minhun can be found among our ancestors. The Arab traveler, merchant and diplomat Ahmad ibn Fadlan visited Russia several times in the 10th century. In his books there is a description of the funeral of a noble Rus, along with which his living wife was burned. Fadlan emphasized that by refusing to climb the funeral pyre, the woman doomed herself and the whole family to shame and dishonor.

Train Into Unknown

Demographic problems not only threaten the stability of Chinese society, but also pose a threat to the Chinese economy.Every day, a deficit, which is unusual for the most populous country in the world, is more and more noticeable – a shortage of labor.

Over the past ten years, alarming tendencies have become increasingly apparent in the Celestial Empire: the population is rapidly aging, the army of pensioners is growing, and the number of workers is shrinking.

The first alarm bell rang in 2012 when Xi Jinping came to power. Then, in China, for the first time in the years of observation, the number of the working-age population decreased.

“This is the first decline in the working-age population in a long time,” said Ma Jiangtang, director of the National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China.”We must pay close attention to him.”

The main statistician of the Celestial Empire associated the decline in the working-age population with a decrease in the birth rate and stressed that it will worsen and last for at least two next decades. For China, whose population is close to 1.4 billion people, a decline of 2.5 million people a year, to about 937 million, may not be critical, but this is a harbinger of very serious problems that neighboring Japan has already faced and other developed countries.

The simplest way to solve the problem, which Russia has followed after the European countries, is to raise the retirement age, which is not suitable for Beijing because of the authorities’ desire to maintain stability in society. What remains is the abolition of birth control. Of course, it is better to do something late than never, but the measure, economists fear, is late, because it will yield tangible results in 10–20 years, when the decline in the working-age population will assume, possibly, alarming proportions.Not surprisingly, Wang Feng, director of Brookings Tsinghua Social Policy Research Center, compares China’s demographic situation to a high-speed train heading into the unknown.

Economists back in 2010 predicted a 30% decline in labor force growth by 2020. Now some data, of course, require adjustment, but the essence of the forecast has not changed.

By the middle of the XXI century, according to the analytical firm GK Dragonomics, the Celestial Empire will face an acute shortage of labor and the loss of the unofficial title of “workshop of the world.”

The numbers speak for themselves: at the end of 2017, Chinese over 60 years old accounted for about 16.2% of the country’s population, and in 1950, according to the UN, their share was half as much – 7.4%. According to forecasts, by 2050, one in four Chinese will be over 60 years old.

Eight years ago, nothing seemed to foretell problems. According to the UN, the share of the working-age population in the PRC has grown from 66% in 1990 to more than 72% in 2010. The ever-growing army of workers has fueled the explosive growth of the Chinese economy, which has averaged 10% per year in recent years.However, by the middle of the century, according to UN experts, the working-age population in China will decline to 61%.

And not only is the share of young people, the cheapest, most mobile and flexible age group of the working-age population, which earned China the title of “workshop of the world”, is declining, but young Chinese also have a rapidly changing attitude to work. Young people do not want to go to factories and plants where they have to work 12 hours a day and receive little money by today’s standards.

The number of migrant workers, another major group of the labor force in China, is also declining.Finding a job in the countryside is much easier now than it was 5-10 years ago. Therefore, fewer and fewer peasants go in search of her in the city.

The first effects of the changes are already visible. Production is gradually leaving the economically developed coast inland. But that’s nothing, but the growing trend towards the withdrawal of business to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh, where there is enough cheap labor, poses serious threats to the Chinese economy.

By example

China will soon cease to be the most populous country in the world.It will be India, the planet’s most populous democracy. The Indian economy is booming now. She is the third in Asia, although she is still far from Japan and even more so from China. India is home to approximately 1.365 billion people as of July 1, 2018. That is, the lag behind China is quite insignificant, and taking into account the birth rate – as of September 1 of this year, 19 million people were already born in India – is easily overcome.

In addition to the title of the first country in the world in terms of population, which India, according to the calculations of demographers from the UN, will acquire in 2024, Delhi will receive, or rather, has already received the same demographic problems as China’s.For example, in India, where from time immemorial they also prefer to have sons, the gender bias is even more pronounced: 704.7 million men and 660 million women.

The situation is aggravated by the obvious and rather large lag of India from China in terms of economic development and size and, naturally, living standards. It would seem that Delhi should have long followed Beijing’s example and introduced birth control, but the authorities are not ready to take draconian measures, since India is a democratic country.

However, India has a rich history of family planning.Suffice it to say that it became the first country to recognize the importance of a programmatic approach to population control and adopted a family planning program back in 1952, which consisted of sexuality education of the population, the popularization of contraception, and the fight against child mortality. However, this program did not bring much success – perhaps because it was propaganda, not coercive.

Unlike China with its strong centralized power and strict discipline, India is not just a democracy, where much, at least what is related to birth control, is done voluntarily, it is also a decentralized democracy.29 states and seven union territories adopt their own laws, which do not always copy federal laws.

The failure of the family planning program was also facilitated by Indian characteristics, which, however, are found in most developing countries: high illiteracy and child mortality, low social status of women, conflicts between castes and religious groups, and monstrous poverty.

The goal of the planning program adopted under Jawaharlal Nehru was to achieve zero population growth by the 21st century.Under Indira Gandhi, the government tried to tighten the screws slightly and reorient family planning towards sterilization. Under Indira Gandhi’s son, Sanjay, the government began to persuade men to have a vasectomy, offering transistors or money in return. When these proposals did not arouse much enthusiasm, the authorities began to carry out sterilization secretly or even forcibly.

In the 1990s, India adopted a UN program that focuses not on preventing pregnancy, but on sexuality education for the population and improving medical care for women and children.

“We are not supporters of birth control through laws,” emphasized federal health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in 2010.

One of the significant differences between India, which with 2.6% of the world’s land area accounts for about 18% of the world’s population, is a much younger population than in China. More than half of the population is of reproductive age – from 15 to 49 years old, and a little less than 50% is even younger than 25 years old.On the one hand, a young population is a great help for the economy, especially for modern industries such as electronics, for example, because it provides a large influx of labor and skilled labor, but on the other hand, there are many poor people in the country and a strong strain of all resources. The federal authorities, of course, are fighting poverty, but the population, which is about to exceed 1.4 billion people, is making this struggle much more difficult.

Refusing to fight high fertility by coercion at the federal level, Delhi is trying to convince Indians to have fewer children with material incentives.For example, in the rural state of Maharashtra, local authorities pay newlyweds 5,000 rupees ($ 70) if they wait two years with their children. For some, this is ridiculous money, but not for Indian peasants. Therefore, many agree.

11 Indian states have passed laws limiting the number of children in a family, but they only apply to politicians: politicians are not allowed to be elected to local governments if they have more than two children.

Obviously, they should show their compatriots by their own example how to plan a family.

In a number of states, families with two or more children find themselves at a disadvantage due to the deprivation of benefits: mothers and “extra” children do not have medical care, and women who are carrying a third, etc. child – free nutritional supplements. The fate of fathers with many children is even worse: they will face not only substantial fines, but also in some cases – prison. Officials with many children in such states, if not fired, can say goodbye to their hopes of career growth.

However, there are states where the fight against high birth rates is actually not being waged.Politicians do nothing because they are afraid of losing the trust of voters, many of whom have not yet forgotten their attempts to coerced and covertly sterilized.

Despite huge problems, Delhi can boast of some success in demographic policy. For half a century, the birth rate has dropped to 2.4 children per woman, but this figure is well above 2.1, an indicator that, according to demographers, could stabilize the population at the same level.

By the way, the more economically developed states have already approached this figure or even dropped below it, but in the poorer states it is still an unattainable goal.For example, in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the average number of children per family is just under four.

At the other end of the pole is the already mentioned Satara district in the state of Maharashtra. In Satara, the birth rate dropped to 1.9. By the way, in this region, as recently as in many other regions of India, women after the birth of their second child prefer to undergo a sterilization procedure.

Give birth more to defeat the West

A very difficult demographic situation has now developed in South Korea, where the number of births per woman for the first time dropped below 1, writes the capital’s newspaper “Joseon Ilbo”.Such a low birth rate (0.96), demographers say, occurs mainly during wars.

The news about the anti-record was probably delighted in the north of the Korean Peninsula, because over time, in the south, an increasingly strong deficit will begin to be felt not only in the labor market, but also in the army.

Fertility is declining in all wealthy countries, but in South Korea this process is especially rapid. By the way, this country, like many others, at one time also did not escape the struggle with high birth rates.The birth rate in the south of the peninsula has been declining since the early 1960s of the last century, and before that, after the Korean War (1950-1953), there was a baby boom. The authorities then had to urgently carry out a propaganda campaign aimed at preventing women from giving birth to more than two children.

The main reason for the decline in the birth rate in Korea is the low status of women, as well as problems with employment for young people, rising real estate prices, etc. Korean women either remain single at all, or get married and have children later than before, because they are afraid of discrimination at work and problems with promotion.

The average age at first marriage among Korean women, according to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Families, is now 30.2 years, and in 1980 it did not exceed 24.8 years. The average age of a mother giving birth to her first child in 2018 is 31.6. Naturally, with such late first births, it is difficult for Korean women to have more than two children.

All attempts by the authorities to reverse the trend were unsuccessful. The government spent 153 trillion won ($ 37 billion) between 2006 and 2018 to persuade Korean women to give birth more often, data from the parliamentary commission show.This is funding for free childcare for children under five years of age, payments for pregnant women, etc. Seoul now wants to offer young families subsidies to pay for housing, strengthen the fight against gender discrimination faced by women with children, and free women from the stigma of “mother -lonely “. But even these measures will probably not be enough, because things have gone too far. For example, 357 thousand children were born in South Korea last year, and 493 thousand

ten years earlier.

Not so acute, but still a difficult situation with the birth rate now in Iran.In 1979, the Islamic revolution took place in this country, after which a rapid population growth began, which greatly impeded the development of the economy and caused a strain on all forces and resources. To reduce the birth rate, the authorities introduced compulsory sex education, distributed free protective equipment and medicines, and carried out free sterilization.

The program was successful: by 2012, the birth rate dropped to 1.2 from 3.2 in 1986, not the most “prolific” year.However, in 2012, the Iranian government changed its policy dramatically. Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei set the Iranians the task of bringing the population of the Islamic Republic to 150-200 million by 2032. For comparison: in 2012, a little more than 75 million people lived in Iran.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who led the country in those years, called on Iranian women to give birth more in order to defeat the West. In 2009, he promised women $ 900 for each child (a year later the amount was increased by another $ 100) and another $ 60 annually until the children reach 18 years of age.The result is obvious: the population of Iran has exceeded 82 million this year.

90,000 The world is facing a sharp drop in the birth rate. What is the reason and what is the threat?

  • James Gallagher
  • BBC

Photo author, Getty Images

The world is facing a global decline in fertility, and we are ill prepared for the consequences of a sharp decline in the world’s population, experts warn.

Nearly all countries will experience population decline by the end of the century.In 23 of them, including Spain and Japan, if current trends continue, the population will be halved by 2100.

In addition, humanity will age greatly. The number of people crossing the 80-year mark will exceed the number of newborns.

What’s going on?

The average number of children per woman has been steadily declining. If this figure falls below 2.1, the population begins to decline.

In 1950, the world average was 4.7, and by 2017 it had almost halved to 2.4.

According to the forecasts of a group of experts from the University of Washington in Seattle, in 2100 it will drop to 1.7. The results of their research are published in the journal Lancet.

Scientists predict that the number of people on Earth will peak by 2064, reaching 9.7 billion, and then begin to decline and by the end of the century will be 8.8 billion.

“This is a very important phenomenon: most of the world is transitioning to life in conditions of natural population decline,” – one of the authors of the study, Professor Christopher Murray, told the BBC.

“The process is so massive that people find it difficult to fully grasp what is happening. This is an unprecedented undertaking. Societies need to be reorganized,” he says.

Why is the birth rate falling?

The phenomenon is not associated with a decrease in the number of sperm in male sperm and other things that usually come to mind in this regard.

The main reasons are more women choosing education and work, as well as easier access to contraception.

Having fewer children is a woman’s own choice. In a sense, this is their success story.

Who will be most affected by this? 90,045 9,0003 90,204 The population of Japan in 2017 has already reached an all-time high of 128 million and has begun to decline. According to the forecast, by the end of the century it will be less than 53 million.

Italy over the same period will face an equally sharp decline: from 61 million to 28 million.

By 2100, the population of 23 countries should be reduced by half.Among them, in particular, Spain, Portugal, Thailand and South Korea.

China, the world’s largest nation, is close to making this list. Experts predict that it will peak at 1.4 billion people by 2024, then it will begin to decline, and by the end of the century there will be 732 million Chinese.

India will come out on top in the world in terms of population.

The United Kingdom is projected to have 75 million people by 2063. By 2100, the UK population will decline by 4 million.Human.

According to Professor Murray, his jaw dropped when he realized what all these predictions meant.

The problem is global in nature. In 183 out of 195 countries, fertility is below the level necessary to reproduce.

If the current trend continues, by 2100 the number of babies under the age of five in the world will decrease from the current 681 million to 401 million, and the number of those over 80, on the contrary, will grow from 141 million to 866 million.

B what is the problem?

It would seem that a small number of humanity is good for our planet and its nature.Less carbon dioxide emissions, less forests need to be cleared for plowing.

“Everything would be fine if it were not for the change in the age structure of the population and its negative consequences,” says Professor Murray.

“Huge social shifts are coming. Personally, I am worried because I have an eight-year-old daughter,” he says. “What will the world of the future be like for her?”

Photo author, Getty Images

Photo caption,

In the near future, the world’s population may grow old in droves

Who will pay taxes and health insurance premiums in a massively aging world? Who will look after senior citizens? Will people be able to retire at all?

“We need to take care of a soft landing,” concludes Professor Murray.

What to do?

A number of states, including Great Britain, are still solving demographic problems with the help of immigration.

But this method will soon cease to work, since almost everyone is faced with a decline in population.

“Discussions about whether to open borders will be replaced by competition for increasingly scarce migrants,” says Christopher Murray.

Some countries are trying to stimulate fertility by extending parental leave to care for newborns, free kindergartens, cash benefits and empowering young mothers when they are hired.But it is difficult to say how effective these measures are.

Sweden, at the cost of tremendous efforts, was able to raise the fertility rate from 1.7 to 1.9 children per woman, but other countries did not succeed in this. In Singapore, this indicator remained at 1.3.

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Video caption,

How will Earth’s demographics change in this century?

“I meet people who laugh at our fears.It just can’t be, they say. If necessary, women will give birth more often. But in fact, if no solution is found, our species will simply become extinct in a few centuries “, – Professor Murray sounds the alarm.

At the same time, the authors of the study do not call for a return to the past. one of the main political issues in many countries, but it should not be achieved at the expense of women’s reproductive health and their rights, “says Professor Stein Wolset.

“If these predictions are even half correct, a fundamental rethinking of world politics will be required. Migration will become a necessity from a matter of choice. The prosperity and decline of nations will determine how the world’s working-age population will be distributed,” said Professor Ibrahim Abubakar of University College London.

The only exception

According to the study, the only region in the world where the population will not only not decline, but will triple by the end of the century is sub-Saharan Africa.

For example, in Nigeria, it is projected that 791 million people will live in 2100. The country will bypass China on this indicator and come out on the second place in the world after India.

“It is likely that the number of people from Africa will grow significantly in many countries. In this regard, it becomes critical to overcome racism at the global level,” says Professor Murray.

Why is 2.1 considered the critical level?

Arithmetic seems to suggest that the level of simple reproduction is two children for every woman: if two parents give birth to two children, the population does not change.

But even with the best healthcare, some babies do not make it to adulthood. In addition, slightly more boys are born than girls.

Therefore, it is believed that for developed countries the level of simple reproduction is 2.1. In countries with high infant mortality, naturally, the birth rate should be higher.

What impact will the abolition of China’s birth control policy have?

July 23, People’s Daily Online – In the wake of the constant change in China’s demographic situation over the past few years, government officials, academics and the public are carefully considering one question: Should China abandon its policy of childbearing and implement a comprehensively open demographic politics.In the new issue of the journal of the Ministry of Labor Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China, “Labor and Social Security in China”, an article was published entitled “Comprehensive openness of childbearing is urgent”, which at the official level announced the possible regulation or even radical change of the demographic policy in the country …

Liberalization of fertility policy is inevitable

For more than 10 years, various so-called “inflection points” have appeared in the demographic situation of China, which directly became the reason for numerous regulations on the policy of planned childbearing in the country.In 2000, the PRC government introduced a “second child” policy for parents who are the only children in their families. In 2013, couples in which one of the spouses is the only child were allowed to have two children. In 2016, the “two children” policy was launched across the country, allowing all families to have a second child.

However, in accordance with the actual effect, regulation of the policy of childbearing did not change the general trend with demographic development: the birth rate is low, and the problem of aging in society is aggravated.According to the World Bank, in 2015, the total fertility rate in the PRC was 1.62, which is not only lower than the world average (2.45), but also lower than in high-income economies (1.67). In 2017, the number of newborns in China was 630 thousand less than a year earlier. At the same time, the share of the working-age population fell from 65.6% in 2016 to 64.9% last year, and the demographic dividend is shrinking.

An open demographic policy will have a great impact on the rural population

It is necessary to seriously consider what impact the “free fertility” will have on the future economic and social development of China?

On the one hand, it is necessary to think about whether the abolition of the policy of planned childbearing can prevent a drop in the birth rate.According to the results of the regulation of the policy of planned childbearing, the answer to this question is by no means optimistic. “Economic development is the best preventive measure”, along with the rapid economic development, there are great changes in people’s views on fertility: from “desire to give birth” to “indecision” and “unwillingness”. Moreover, the number of women of childbearing age is decreasing, and there is still a possibility of a “landslide” decline in the population. The experience of different countries shows that it is very difficult to change the established demographic trend.“Encouraging procreation” is obviously more difficult than “planned procreation”.

On the other hand, the question arises of how much a comprehensively open policy of childbearing will have an impact on the structure of the population in the country. Different groups of people hold different views on fertility and also behave in different ways. According to theory and practice, in less developed areas the fertility rate is higher, in families with lower incomes the desire to have children is stronger. Thus, liberalization of population policies in China is expected to have a greater impact on rural areas than cities.In this regard, a phenomenon with a sudden increase in the rural population may appear. This issue requires increased attention from China, which is accelerating urbanization and modernization.

In the new situation, in the new conditions of demographic development, the gradual regulation of the policy of planned childbearing and its final abolition are an inevitable choice. However, simultaneously with a comprehensively open policy of fertility, it is necessary to take measures in advance, to strengthen scientific forecasting of the population development trend, to build and improve a protective system against the impact of demographic changes on economic and social development.Along with this, numerous measures should be taken in order to reduce the cost of fertility, try to strengthen the general desire of the population to increase the birth rate, so that as many people as possible not only “want to give birth”, but also can “give birth” and “raise” children.

90,000 How to choose birth control when you have migraines

Definition

Better birth control

Option while driving

migraine

it is a complex but surprisingly common health issue.According to

American Migraine Foundation

about one in five women in the United States

migraine

And the disease is most common for women in their twenties, thirties and forties. In other words, it happens at a time in life when many women decide to use some form of

contraception

Refusal

Find the right

Birth control form

may take some trial and error. It’s definitely not one size – everything says, says

Julie M.Levitt, MD

obstetrician

gynecologist

At the Northwest Work Women’s Group in Northbrook, Illinois.

“I would never say, ‘Oh, this one method or pill is my outlet for everyone; He has to be very individual and adaptable to this patient, ”says Dr. Levitt.

There may also be safety concerns about certain types

Hormonal birth control

for women with migraines or at risk that some

contraception

medications can affect your hormone levels in a way that makes your

Migraine attacks

the worst.

Here are some expert tips for evaluating your

Birth control options

If you have migraines.


Different types of hormonal birth control

There are several hormonal methods available

birth control

to choose according to the planned parenting. They include the following options:


  • Birth control pills

    There are two

    Fertility types

    : combination pills (COCS) and progestin-only pills (PPP).COCS contain synthetic forms of hormones

    estrogen

    as well as

    progestin

    and PPP (also called mini-flushes) are just progestin without

    estrogen

    Refusal

    Birth control pills

    Usually needs to be taken every day.


  • Birth control implant

    It’s a tiny device, brand name

    Nexplanon

    , releases progestin into the body. The implant is usually placed in the upper arm and prevents pregnancy for up to three years.It must be inserted and removed by your healthcare provider.

  • Opinion

    IUD worth

    intrauterine device

    And there are two types: copper and hormonal. The hormonal type releases the progestin into the body. Both types must be inserted into the uterus by a healthcare professional. One copper IUD on the market,

    Paraguard

    provides up to 10 years of pregnancy prevention, while the four hormonal IUDs available –

    Liletta

    ,

    Mirena

    ,

    Kaylena

    , as well as

    Skyla

    – Provide 3 to 6 years of pregnancy prevention.


  • Birth control shot

    Also called Shot Depot, short for the brand

    Depo-Povera

    This injection contains a progestin. It must be entered every three months by your healthcare provider.

  • Birth control

    Known as

    Novaring

    The birth control ring is placed in

    vagina

    where he releases

    Estrogen and progestin

    Disclaimer It was inserted by the user once a month and removed after three weeks.A new ring was inserted a week later.

  • Birth control patch

    Like COCS, patch,

    Xelane

    Contains the hormones estrogen and progestin. A new patch is applied by the user to the upper outer arm, back, buttocks, or abdomen once a week for three weeks, then there is no patch for one week. The cycle is then repeated.

Which one you choose, if any, may depend on your lifestyle, health history, age, whether and when you want to have children, and possibly your insurance coverage.


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What are the best and worst birth control options?


Certain types of birth control pills can improve migraines

For some women with migraines, in particular, menstrual migraines taking estrogen control pills may be a win-win due to the effect of the pills on hormone levels. Women often experience

Migraine symptoms

when their

Estrogen levels

change or fall, and pills can help even at these levels, according to

American headache society

Refusal

A typical package of combination control pills consists of 21 and 24 tablets that contain hormones and four to seven placebos or inactive tablets that do not contain hormones.The woman is generally bleeding or

Has its own period

on the days when she takes inactive pills.

Women with menstrual or menstrual menstrual migraines often have success with certain COCS that only have two days of placebo, compared to other options that have four, five, or seven days of placebo, Levitt says.

“By using a pill that has fewer placebo days, we can keep the patient more steady with her.

Estrogen levels

; It can help a lot of people feel better because they don’t have that terrible menstrual migraine week, she says.

90,000 Lessons from political demography

The Chinese authorities have decided to abandon the one-family-one-child birth control policy. This step reflects the shifts in modern Chinese society, but at the same time, China’s new view of itself, its current and future role in the world.

Participants in the plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China voted for weakening birth control in October 2015, which considered a plan for socio-economic development for the next five years – from 2016 to 2020.Now all Chinese families will be able to have two children. There is, perhaps, no less political content in this decision than demography.

The attitude “one family – one child” has survived several generations of leaders – it was born under Deng Xiaoping almost simultaneously with the course of reforms and openness; it was carried out in a relatively unchanged form under Jiang Zemin; it was slightly weakened under Hu Jintao parents were allowed to give birth to a second child) and finally canceled under the current leader.Xi Jinping also managed to note another decision – since 2013, as another step towards lifting the long-term ban on a second child, it was allowed to have families where at least one of the spouses was the only child in the family.

End of an era

Permission to have two children instead of one does not seem very revolutionary at first glance. However, a symbolic moment is important here – China is saying goodbye to a whole era, which will remain for descendants in the form of posters convincing that just one son or one daughter is real family happiness.The museum showcases will showcase documents such as permission for a second child, a symbol of state control over one of the most closed areas of human life. There has probably not been such a large-scale attempt in the world to defuse the “demographic bomb” – so long in terms of time, in terms of the number of the population covered, by the power of the administrative resource involved in the implementation of the policy of “planned childbearing”. China is one of the few countries in the world where the obligation of spouses to “carry out planned childbearing” is written down in the Constitution.

According to official figures, tough birth control measures have meant that 400 million children have not been born in China since 1980 (more than the current US population or the combined population of Brazil and Pakistan). As for the fines collected for all this time from violators of the ban, there is no exact open data on this matter. According to expert estimates, only from 1980 to 2011. raised 1.5-2 trillion yuan (about 235.5 billion US dollars at the current exchange rate). It should be borne in mind that these are far from complete figures.This, for example, does not include a large fine that was paid in 2014 by world famous film director Zhang Yimou and his wife. For violation of the rules of planned childbirth, the couple had to transfer $ 1.2 million to the treasury. Zhang Yimou and his wife have officially admitted that they had three children before their marriage in 2011 in 2001, 2004 and 2006.

A scandalous incident occurred several years ago with a member of the local people’s congress in Shanxi province (North China).It turned out that the “servant of the people” has 4 wives and 10 children, and 3 illegitimate wives and 9 children born in violation of the norm were able to obtain a residence permit. According to Chinese regulations, a child born out of wedlock cannot obtain residence registration. Such stories cause particular outrage from the public, which rightly points to the existence of loopholes for the elite. Wealthy Chinese pay off or leave for childbirth in Hong Kong, where they issue Hong Kong passports for their children, officials use corruption ties to solve problems with the registration of illegal children.It turns out that in this area, too, the “social pie” was distributed extremely unevenly – some will face severe sanctions, forced abortions and even confiscation of land (which many peasants complained about), and some will have complete freedom in matters of childbearing.

The most notorious cases of persecution of offenders do not occur precisely in prosperous metropolitan areas, but in small depressed cities or predominantly rural areas. The budgets of the economically less developed provinces of the PRC are highly dependent on such a source of income as “social compensation” (this is the official name for fines for violations of the “one child” policy).On the other hand, economically backward provinces receive less tax revenues and generally have a limited set of opportunities to receive budget revenues. That is why local commissions in these provinces are more active in collecting funds from “guilty” families. And there are always reasons for “throwing nets” in search of violators in poor regions: villagers and townspeople with a lower standard of living and education, as a rule, tend to have more children.

“Excess children” born in families whose budget is very limited, in fact, were deprived of many social guarantees, since they cannot get them a residence permit without paying a fine.This gave rise to a whole layer of people who really exist, but from the point of view of the law they do not exist. According to some estimates, there are at least 6.5 million such citizens without registration today.

It turns out that politics, conceived as a path to social harmony and fair distribution of limited resources, in the current administrative system in China turns into the exact opposite: it is precisely the least protected part of society that is subjected to pressure.

Among the adverse consequences of the policy of planned childbearing, gender imbalance is usually cited: a long-standing Chinese tradition of preferring sons to daughters led to the fact that parents resorted to abortion, having learned (most often for a large bribe) the sex of the child (officially, medical workers are prohibited from reporting ultrasound results).As a result, millions of Chinese men cannot find brides.

Grow old before you get rich and strong

Rapid aging of society has become another negative consequence of many years of birth control. At the same time, the burden on young families today has already become unbearable – two young spouses (as a rule, the only children in their families) have to support four parents, and sometimes even grandparents.

The transformation of China into a “country of silver hair” without a substitute inflow of fresh young forces into the labor market is becoming dangerous for the Chinese economy, which since the moment of reforms has relied on unlimited labor resources as one of its most important competitive advantages. Today, in the Chinese megalopolises, the population replacement rate has dropped below one. The total coefficient for the country is approaching 1.6. This is significantly below the level sufficient to compensate for the natural decline in the population – Chinese demographers have long said that the authorities are clearly going overboard while maintaining tight birth control.The conclusions of the Chinese experts are in line with international assessments. So, according to UN forecasts, if the current situation persists, China by 2050 may lose about 17% of its workforce.

In recent years, not only economists, but also the military have criticized the policy of planned childbearing. According to Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu of the National Defense University, 70% of Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers come from families with one child, and among combat units, this figure reaches 80%.In an open report to the central government in 2012, the expert emphasized that sending an only child to war has been taboo for Chinese families since ancient times, and also pointed out that family planning policies negatively affect the combat readiness of the Chinese army. “Little emperors”, as the only children are called, are poorly adapted to life, spoiled, often simply not ready for military service – both physically and mentally.

This is also a paradoxical result of the “one child” policy.Often in Chinese materials promoting “a small happy family” one could come across arguments as if written off from works on eugenics. It has been said, for example, that birth control is a way to strengthen a nation, since parents can pay more attention to the only child, thereby making him a strong and useful member of society and almost a superman. It also mixed with traditional Chinese beliefs that proper nutrition and “special training” of the fetus can enhance the natural qualities of a person.A lot of scientific and popular literature is devoted to the upbringing of such qualities (in Chinese – “suzhi”), only now, tearing the child out of the familiar environment of a large multigenerational family for the Chinese and literally incinerating the only child with their care, the parents brought up individualists, poorly prepared for life in society …

Where is China leaving?

In this case, it was not the process itself that was critical (the rejection of traditional large families is characteristic of all modernizing societies), but its pace.Of course, it is also important which huge country almost instantly decided to “instill” the civilized rate of population growth. This step has led not only to the growth of the apparatus of control and coercion. Permeating the country from top to bottom, this apparatus has actually turned into one of the interest groups striving to preserve the policy of planned birth as long as possible. Tension was felt in society as well, it seems that at some stage the critical mass worked: the party-state machine, for which maintaining stability in the country is a primary task, saw that the preservation of the old principles of birth control was becoming a destabilizing factor.

The arguments of not only economists and demographers were perceived, who reasonably drew attention to gender and age imbalances, a decrease in the number of working-age citizens, etc. Those who saw the negative socio-political consequences of the previous course were heard. Among them is the renowned Chinese expert on population issues He Yafu. In his speeches, for example, he drew attention to the viciousness of defining different norms of childbearing for different nationalities.Benefits were in effect for national minorities. While the families of representatives of the titular Han nation living in Xinjiang were allowed to have only one child, the Uighurs or Kazakhs living next to them could have two, and in the case of the birth of the first two girls, even three offspring. He Yafu considers this approach selective and unfair. In addition, according to him, if the old policy of prohibitions is followed, the population will continue to be seen as a burden for the state, and not as a human resource.The scientist believes that increasing the GDP per capita by decreasing the population itself is “naive and absurd,” while society sacrifices the interests of future generations for the sake of short-term selfish interests of the current generation. High unemployment is not at all related to overpopulation; it is rather the result of systemic deficiencies and economic policies, He Yafu emphasizes. Some harshness of his judgments is due to the fact that he is a supporter of the complete abolition of birth control.

The official party press interprets the latest measures as an important “adaptive reform”, in many respects a continuation of the previous correct demographic policy. “On this issue, the settlement of old scores, especially the denial of the past with the help of modernity, can only intensify the split in society and make it difficult to understand history,” noted in one of the first responses of the People’s Daily to the decision of the October party plenum. The newspaper called for a comprehensive assessment of the impact of the new policy on society and the family, to give answers to the questions that people have in the course of the implementation of this policy, to develop appropriate measures of social support.

However, even from this conservative comment, it is clear that feedback mechanisms are important for the authorities. There is an understanding that maintaining a semblance of well-being with prohibitions can exacerbate existing problems in society. Not so long ago, the prominent party theorist Yu Keping drew attention to the need to develop a new concept of social stability. The Chinese political scientist believes that today we need “an active transition from static stability, when the main method was the creation of dams, to dynamic stability, which is based on the construction of canals.”The pile of bans, many of which were incomprehensible to citizens, made it difficult to reach public consensus, while the accumulated protest potential had no legal outlet. At a time when the reform process has become critical for every Chinese, new approaches are needed that are more flexible and inclusive.

China, which is becoming more and more diverse and complex, is gazing at itself intently, dismantling one or another dam inherited from the past.This work, naturally, is inscribed in a broader context – strengthening the state apparatus, increasing the party’s ability to govern society in the face of internal and external challenges.

Demographics and the Chinese Dream

If the start of the policy “one family – one child” did not take place without the influence of Western theories of “population explosion”, “resource hunger”, etc., then its finish seems to be determined exclusively by internal Chinese factors.It is hard to believe that birth control has been weakened as a result of pressure on the party and state leadership of Western governments or human rights groups.

Rather, the logic of the Chinese reforms led to taking another step towards freeing the demographic sphere from unnecessary government interference. The revitalization of the discussion about the problems of population in the PRC made it possible to broadcast an important signal to the outside world – China is gradually moving to a model of population reproduction that is characteristic of most developed countries.According to surveys, many young families, especially in cities, no longer want to have many children.

According to preliminary official estimates, about 90 million families fall under the “two-child policy”, which will increase the population to 1.45 billion people by 2030 (at the end of 2014 – 1.37 billion people). It is quite clear that there will be no demographic explosion or unprecedented migration pressure from China on near and distant countries predicted by some analysts.

A lesson in polemics with the West on this issue was once taught by Xi Jinping, when he was still in the post of vice-president of the PRC. During a meeting with the Chinese diaspora in Mexico, he said: “Some well-fed, bored foreigners do not find anything better than poking a finger at our country. Firstly, China does not export revolution, secondly, China does not export hunger and poverty, and thirdly, China does not give you headaches, is that not enough? ”

More recently, Chinese officials have proudly declared that the policy of planned childbearing has delayed the appearance of the seven billionth inhabitant on the planet by five years.At the same time, based on the current situation, China is unlikely to emphasize that its experience in solving socio-demographic problems is so unique that it can be used in other developing countries. The history of the “one country – one child” campaign is closed, and it is quite possible that in the near future Beijing will be interested in the experience of stimulating the birth rate. In some large cities in China, you need to think about it now.

Finally, the interests of ensuring better and more balanced population growth will increase the activity of the PRC in such specialized international organizations as the World Health Organization, the United Nations Population Fund, UNESCO, the World Labor Organization, etc.e. The main areas that China may be interested in are protecting the health of women and children, improving the quality of perinatal services, reproductive health and the environment, problems of population aging, gender equality.

The new demographic policy will determine the demand not only in the market for scientific expertise, but will also affect business. It is symptomatic that immediately after the announcement of the decision of the plenum of the Central Committee, the shares of manufacturers of baby food and musical instruments increased (the latter, apparently, counting on the fact that the demand for aesthetic education of children will increase).Chinese economists predict growth in demand for housing, goods for children and households, health care and education. By 2050, China’s working-age population aged 15 to 59 will grow by about 30 million.

Meanwhile, many experts are urging not to focus solely on numbers, as the decision marks a profound social turn in Chinese history. “The abolition of the ‘one child’ policy is in line with the demands of society, and the true meaning of this step is to better ensure human rights, so that Chinese citizens have more freedom and more rights in childbearing – an area that no doubt belongs to privacy.Therefore, the social and political significance of the new policy of “two children” far exceeds its economic significance, “the well-known economist Hu Zulu commented on the decisions of the plenary session of the CPC Central Committee.

The general motivation for Chinese domestic policy will be determined by the capacious phrase uttered by Xi Jinping a few days after his election as Secretary General – “they beat for backwardness, … only development leads to self-reinforcement.” At the same time, the Chinese leadership, focusing on ensuring sustainable economic development, will try to balance the interests of society and the individual, which, due to historical, political and economic reasons, has not been fully accomplished in the course of implementing the “one family – one child” course.

The point of view of the authors whose comments are published under the heading

“Experts of MGIMO Speak” may not coincide with the opinion of the portal’s editorial board.

90,000 Declining fertility in China threatens its economy

Fertility in China has fallen to a record low in 2019 of 10.48 children per 1,000, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. In total, 14.7 million babies were born in China last year.This creates additional risks for the country’s economy. Its growth rate in 2019 has already slowed down to 6.1%, the lowest since 1990.

For many years, China has had a one-family-one-child policy due to rapid population growth. But then the problem of aging of the population arose, and since 2016 the government allowed families to have two children, and also began to make payments for the birth of a second child. This had only a short-term effect. In 2016, the birth rate increased by 8%, but then began to decline again.

The problem is aggravated by the shortage of women of childbearing age, since since the 1980s. many Chinese families preferred to have sons, the Financial Times notes. As a result, the number of women between the ages of 20 and 39 in the country decreased by 7% over the five years to 2018. “We face a shortage of expectant mothers,” the publication quotes demographer Yuan Xin from Nankai University. According to his estimates, already in 2030 the country’s population may begin to decline.

Fertility is also declining due to material problems.A study by the Shanghai Women’s Federation found last year that more than half of local families spend at least a third of their income on childcare. In addition, more and more Chinese women fear that having a child will harm their careers.

This demographic trend hurts the economy for two reasons. First, due to a decrease in the birth rate, the working-age population is decreasing. A recent survey of 353 companies in Sichuan, one of the most populous provinces in China, found that 57.8% of them are struggling to find employees for existing jobs due in part to an aging population of 57.8%.“A large and young labor force is the main driver of economic growth, and China is starting to lose it,” says Yi Fuxian of the University of Wisconsin in Madison (quoted by FT).

Secondly, in recent years, China has been trying to change its economic model – to reduce its dependence on exports and increase the domestic market. But the demand for it is also weakening against the background of demographic problems. Retail sales in China rose only 8% last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.This is the worst result since 1999. “Consumption has become less active, primarily due to the [shrinking] of the young population,” says Huang Wenzheng of the Center for China and Globalization.

Problems with fertility and population aging are not only in China. Population of 55 countries, including China, predicted to decrease by 2050

90,000 Population and ethnic composition – Xinhua English.news.cn

Population

In terms of population, China ranks first in the world.By the end of 2015, the population of China reached 1 billion 374 million 620 thousand people (not counting the UAR Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan province). This is one fifth of the world’s population. China is one of the most populous countries in the world. The average population density is 143 people per 1 sq. km. At the same time, the population is distributed extremely unevenly: in the densely populated coastal regions of Eastern China, the density is more than 400 people per 1 sq. km, in Central China – more than 200 people per 1 sq. km, and in the highlands of Western China – less than 10 people per 1 sq.km. Population growth

Childbirth policy

In 1949, the year of the formation of the PRC, the total population of the country was 541 million 670 thousand people. Social stability, development of production, improvement of sanitary and medical conditions, on the one hand, as well as insufficient awareness of the importance of control over population growth and lack of experience in this matter, on the other, determined the rapid growth of the total population. As a result, by 1969 it had already reached 806 million.710 thousand people. Facing the demographic explosion, the government from the 70s. started birth control. Thanks to the measures taken, the birth rate began to gradually decline.

The main content of family planning: encouraging late marriage and late childbirth, limiting the number of babies with an emphasis on improving the complex characteristics of the quality of the nation, encouraging spouses to have only one child. Peasant families experiencing difficulties due to a lack of labor are allowed to have a second child with a certain interval after the birth of the first.In the areas of national minorities, various rules are adhered to, depending on the will and number of the titular nationality, the availability of local resources, the state of the economy, cultural traditions and folk customs. In general, each such family can have two children, in some areas – three. For the smallest national minorities, no restrictions are set.

From January 1, 2016, China will comprehensively implement the “one family, two children” policy.

On December 27, 2015, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress adopted a revised Population and Planned Childbirth Law, which will comprehensively implement the “one family, two children” policy in China from January 1, 2016.At a regular plenary meeting convened in October, the CPC Central Committee decided to introduce the “two children” rule to apply to all families, which should replace the “one family, one child” policy that has been in place for decades. This is another step in the process of softening the demographic policy after the start in 2013 in the country of a new birth rate policy, according to which Chinese couples received the right to have two children if at least one of the spouses is the only child of their parents.

According to the forecast of the deputy chairman of the State Committee for Health and Planned Childbirth, Wang Peian, after the full enactment of the policy allowing all Chinese families to have two children, no significant increase in the Chinese population is expected, by 2029 it will reach its peak value of 1. 45 billion people. The new policy will provide a potential growth of the national economy by 0.5 percentage points.

56 nationalities

MPs are an ethnic group from Yunnan Province.

China is a single multinational state with 56 nationalities. According to the 6th National Census, conducted in 2010, the most numerous ethnic group among them is the Zhuang – 16.926 million; the smallest is the Tatar nationality – only 3556 people.

Han people live throughout the country, the main areas of their settlement are the Yellow He, Yangtze and Zhujiang basins, mainly the middle and lower reaches of these rivers, as well as the Northeastern Plain.Although the share of national minorities in the population of China is not too high, their area of ​​settlement is very extensive – 64.3% of the entire territory of China. The main places of residence of national minorities are the outlying regions of North-East, North, North-West, South-West China. Yunnan Province is inhabited by over 20 nationalities. It is the most diverse province in terms of ethnicity. Over a long historical period, as a result of the resettlement of nationalities, the direction of military settlers to develop virgin lands, migration of the population and the change of dynasties, a mixed residence of nationalities has developed, relatively small but compact communities of national minorities have been formed.This created objective conditions for a broad economic and cultural exchange between the Han people and national minorities, as well as for the implementation of national regional autonomy in areas of compact residence of national minorities.

National District Autonomy

Equality, cohesion, mutual assistance and common prosperity of all nations – these are the basic principles of the government’s national policy. On their basis, in places of compact residence of national minorities, national regional autonomy is carried out.It implies the creation of self-government bodies, operating under the unified leadership of the state and endowed with the right to autonomy in their area. Autonomy makes it possible for national minorities to be the masters of the country and to dispose of the internal affairs of the national region. The central government, for its part, provides the regions of national autonomy with significant financial and material assistance, stimulating their economic and cultural development. At the same time, through the state, through the system of ordinary universities, national universities (institutes) and schools of national cadres, national cadres and specialists of various profiles are being trained.The National Regional Autonomy Law, passed in 1984 at the 2nd Session of the 6th NPC, specifically guarantees the implementation of the basic principles and provisions of the National Regional Autonomy Constitution and is the main legal basis for nation-building policy in China. Five autonomous regions have been formed in China – Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region, 30 autonomous regions have been formed, 120 autonomous counties (khoshuns), more than 1,300 national volosts.The organs of self-government in the places of national autonomy are the Assembly of People’s Representatives (SNP) and the people’s governments of autonomous regions, districts and counties (khoshuns). In places of national autonomy, a representative of the titular nationality is elected as the chairman (or deputy chairman) of the standing committee of the local SNP; a similar principle is adhered to in personnel policy at the level of the chairmen of the governments of autonomous regions, districts and counties.

Self-government bodies in places of national regional autonomy have equal powers with local government bodies of a similar level.At the same time, they enjoy broad rights to autonomy, namely: to determine the order and rules of self-government, to develop special provisions on specific issues, taking into account the political, economic and cultural characteristics of the region; to independently manage the financial income belonging to the region of national autonomy; independently manage economic construction, education, science, culture, health care, physical education and sports, protect and restore the national cultural heritage, develop and promote the prosperity of the national culture.

Languages ​​and writing

Han people have their own language (Chinese) and writing systems, which are used not only in the country, but also abroad. Chinese is one of the five working languages ​​of the United Nations. In addition to the Hui and Manchus, who, like the Han, use Mandarin, the normative Chinese language, all the other 53 minorities have a native language, and 29 of them use 54 national scripts. Teaching in the national schools of China is carried out in the native language, textbooks and manuals are published in the national languages, at the same time Chinese is included in the number of subjects with the aim of spreading Mandarin.

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