China to stick to one-child policy

Beijing, Mar 5: China has declared that it will continue its one-child policy, which limits a couple to having a single child, to sustain low birth rate.

The world's most populous country's three-decade-old one-child policy comes with the slogan 'lower birth rate equals faster prosperity'.

The communist country has also pledged to bolster its 'strategic research' on coping with an ageing population.

"We will do a good job in population and family planning work. We will continue to maintain a low birth rate. We will provide good planning services for the floating population," Prime Minister We Jiabao told the National People's Congress on Friday, Mar 5.

"We will continue to reward and support eligible rural families that comply with family planning regulations," he added.

Jiabao ruled out the possibility of doing away with the one-child policy despite the findings of the recent studies which showed that in coming years China will have more old age people than youngsters. A situation like this would make the country less competitive to countries like India in terms of labour and human resources.

When it was devised in 1979 by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to limit the population growth, the one-child policy was deemed as a temporary measure. But evidently, the country believes that this policy is revelent even after a quarter-century.

OneIndia News