Understanding and implementing the Party's policies on family planning accurately in an all-around way]

Recently, the Party's Central Committee held numerous meetings to study the problem of family planning. The main goal of these meetings was to find a correct family planning policy, which should be based on common sense, support from the people, and reasonable work from the cadres. Family planning policies and regulations should be realistic and creative. In the implementation of policies, different methods should be adopted for varied situations, and there should also be appropriate guiding principles for different categories. To cope with a new situation, creative methods and approaches should be chosen in order to implement the family planning policy. The correct method will ensure complete implementation of the policy. In family planning work, the first step is the improvement of ideological education, so that the people may have a correct understanding of the need for family planning. In the technical management work of family planning, a constant improvement in the quality of service should be the goal. Through practical working experience in family planning, some rules and regulations will be found, and they should be used to promote the management level and the level of family planning work in general.     

Practising planned birth and carrying out the education of transforming social traditions]

Practicing planned birth involves more than having fewer children; it revolutionizes old habits and customs. According to Confucian and Mencian tents, of the 3 unfilial acts, to lack an heir is the greatest. Even today some believe that only males are capable of carrying on the family line, but actually both male and female are posterity because: 1) historically, there have been societies where only women were considered to be heirs; 2) scientifically, both men and women pass on hereditary characteristics; 3) racially, all men and women are children of the nation. Further, the following old ideas must be addressed: traditionally a woman married into a man's family and thus was not considered an heir, but a man can just as easily become a member of the woman's family; 2) in old China women had no inheritance rights, but by law they now do, so they can be heirs; 3) when women married they took the man's surname and it was thus thought her family line would die, but posterity and surnames are two separate matters. The traditional attitude that "the more the offspring, the greater the prosperity" is not necessarily true because: 1) a big family does not necessarily mean there are more people to work because children under 16 years old cannot contribute to the family's labor force and need to be supported; 2) when children mature, they marry and must use their resources for their own family, so they cannot continue to subsidize their parents; furthermore, a big family requires enough land and agricultural implements to work it; 3) even though a big family has a greater income, expenditures are also larger. The traditional attitude of "raising children to forestall the problems of old age" no longer applies because with or without children the elderly can rely on the socialist system of ownership.     

The characteristics of population growth of the Dongxiang nationality and the necessity of carrying out family planning]

For a long time, the Dongxiang nationality has lived in the area of Dongxiang, which is a part of Gu Hezhou in Gansu Province. Among the various minorities in China, the Dongxiang people has been noted for their small population. In recent years, however, their population growth rate has been very high. Statistics show their annual population growth rate was 13.5% in 1970 and 32.8% in 1980. This situation is caused mainly by the young age of the population (young persons under the age of 19 constitute 55.7% of the entire population). Because of the popularity of Islam among the people, the custom of early marriage and having children at an early age has long been a tradition. Rapid population growth has created numerous problems. Food production has been unable to keep up with the speed of the population growth, and economic development cannot satisfy the needs of the rapid growing population. The Dongxiang people are physically healthy and strong, and marriages between close relatives is prohibited. Because of the backward condition in education and culture, efforts to promote the quality of the Dongxiang population have remained slow and ineffective. Starting in 1974, the local government in Dongxiang launched extensive birth control projects and positive results have been achieved. At the present time, about 62% of its population have taken birth control measures, and the natural population growth rate dropped to 15.34% in 1982.     

The experience of carrying out the technical responsibility system in the birth control of Peng County, Sichuan Province]

Following the establishment of the system of fixed responsibility in production in Peng County, Sichuan Province, the County's Family Planning Office and Public Health Bureau in 1980 broadened the system of technical responsibility in birth control by defining tasks and goals. The commune public health office should guide birth control technology, lower the incidence of unplanned pregnancies and the number of abortions. The number of fertile women using IUDs should be over 80%, and its failure rate should be less then 10%; the failure rate of male ligature should be less than 3%. Commune members should give 1 jiao to the public health office for expenses incurred in birth control technology. If all the goals are reached, then there would be economic rewards outside the total public support system. That is, 1 jiao is awarded for each IUD inserted, 2 jiao for male ligatures and 3 jiao for female ligatures. Infractions such as poor attitude, irresponsibility, or delaying surgery are fined from 1-20 yuan. The following situations resulted from having implemented the system of technical responsibilty for birth control: 1) medical personnel had the authority to initiate action concerning birth control technology; 2) the quality of surgery was raised, while the incidence of errors was lowered; 3) the costs of surgery were lowered; and 4) because abortions are not awarded with economic incentives, medical personnel tended to perform more preventive surgery rather than corrective surgery.     

Premarriage education in family planning should begin in puberty]

The work of disseminating family planning information must begin at puberty in order to provide a sound foundation for future family planning education. Premarital education that begins at puberty should emphasize decreasing the number of early marriages, planning for only 1 child, and superior births. The Chinese Family Planning Association held a special seminar in November 1986, in Taicang County, Jiangsu Province, to study sex education. Some observations by individual participants are included below and do not represent the viewpoints of the Conference. Education at puberty concerns 2 primary areas: knowledge about sex, and morals concerning sex. At this age, physical changes are met by immature minds. Adolescents are not informed about the sexes; nor do they understand self control. Families and teachers must help them comprehend physical desire and relationships. The first step in educating adolescents is to eradicate feudal attitudes that make sex a taboo subject and that equate it with obscenity. Sex education is scientific and must be disseminated as such. If proper objective information is not provided, adolescents will acquire the wrong, and sometimes detrimental, information from peers. Early marriage, abortions by unwed mothers and sex crimes can be prevented by proper education. In those schools, particularly in Shanghai, which have sex education, the reception has been positive among teachers and students. Although sex education is crucial to educating adolescents, it should not be confined to this age group. Engaged couples and newlyweds also need such information.     

Comparison and fairness in family planning]

There are two kinds of comparison in family planning (FP) practice. First, people compare the number of children they have with their desired family size. Second, people compare their number of children with other's. The extent of their satisfaction from the comparison often depends on their expectation. And people's expectation about their family size may have an impact on the level of fertility. One task in a FP program is to regulate people's objects for comparison and to reduce the number of children they expect to have. But, changes in people's desired number of children are largely dependent upon the socio economic charges which can not be achieved in short time. Therefore, it would be more advisable to direct people to compare their fertility behavior with those of couples who have only one child, rather than those who have 3 or 4. Satisfaction with family size also comes from a feeling of fairness. People not only look at what they get, but also at what others get. Fairness and justice in FP program implementation is important. If those who violate local birth control policies and regulations are not properly punished, other people would feel that the situation is unfair and they would regret that they did not do the same. The pressure brought by over-population to socio-economic development has been gradually felt by most people. But, it is still difficult to have them strictly observe the present fertility regulation policy. If restrictions of various kinds are enforced and education and publicity are used, people will feel that they are being treated fairly. This will facilitate the promotion of the FP program.     

Correctly understand and use the measures of progress of the family planning program]

It is necessary to understand correctly the measures of progress in the accomplishments of family planning work. From a developmental and historical perspective the primary measures are constantly in flux. In the last decade, the criteria used to assess the progress have ranged from the natural rate of growth to the birth rate, to multiple-child rate, and to the planned family rate, all of which reflect different emphasis in the various stages of family planning work. They also show a tendency toward making planning work more scientific. None of the criteria is flawless, however. For instance, the planned family rate can be influenced by the total number of births. When that number increases, it can cause the planned family rate to decrease; or, when the number of births decreases, the planned family rate can increase. The measures used for assessing the accomplishments of family planning work only reflect individual aspects of the work; it can never reflect the totality of family planning work because the scope is so vast, encompassing virtually all levels and organizations of society.     

How to carry out work on family planning after adopting production responsibility systems in rural areas]

After the Third Meeting of the Eleventh People's Congress, the entire responsibility for agricultural production was transferred to a lower level. Peasants in various areas have adopted the so called production responsibility system, and the phenomenon of an increased population rate has also appeared in some areas. In this article, the author discusses how to solve these problems created by the new situation. The 1st step is try to control population growth through socialist propaganda education, administrative measures, economic incentives and punishments, and family planning work. The 2nd step is to popularize the practice of having only 1 child per household in the rural areas. The 2nd and 3rd child in each family should be controlled and prohibited. This policy formulated by the Central Government should be carried out thoroughly. Families which follow the policy and have only 1 child should be encouraged with economic rewards, and those families which have 2 or more children should be punished economically. The 3rd step is to establish a national work team to be in charge of family planning and birth control. There should be an ideological unity among the nation's leadership. Party members and cadres should establish themselves as good examples for the people so that the population control work may become successful.     

Publicity and education on family planning information in Keshan County

In 1984 the Keshan (Northeast China) County Government and the Family Planning Committee initiated an education campaign to disseminate family planning information to farmers. The team of propagandists consisted primarily of full-time family planning workers. Village cadres, school teachers, and rural physicians, who are properly educated and positive about family planning work, enjoy high prestige among the workers. They were invited to be team members after training and are supported by the villagers because they come from among the local people. All the childbearing women aged 15-49 in each village were classified by the propagandist into 5 groups according to their marital and childbearing status, i.e., women at the age of puberty, women of new marriage, pregnant and lying-in women, women with children to be reared, and middle-age and old women. The women were organized into groups to attend lectures on different subjects such as population policy, relationship between population growth and socioeconomic development on the 1 hand and individuals and environment on the other. Also included were physiology, the health birth and rearing of children, and health care for women and the aged. The publicity effort included broadcasting, films, video aids, and slide shows. Increased classs were during the slack seasons, and lectures were given once a week. By 1986, about 80% of the population at childbearing age in Keshan County had attended the family planning lectures.     

Carrying out the number seven directive of C.C.C.C.P., spreading comprehensive measures of birth control]

This report examines how the Yi Yang District of Hunan Province carried out the Central Commitee of the Chinese Communist Party's No. 7 Directive, i.e., the directive requiring the people of the county to take comrehensive measures, as opposed to single methods, to promote birth control. Yi Yang District officials in charge of Family Planning established a new and comprehensive program promoting birth control, stressing 4 major points: 1) a voluntary policy, 2) suitability of the birth control method, 3) safety, and 4) convenience. Under the voluntary policy they emphasize that people must be free to choose their own means of birth control based upon physical considerations and personal beliefs because compulsory measures are generally resisted. Secondly, the method of birth control must be suitable to the individuals involved. Local family planning agencies have been very effective in helping couples establish medical records and in providing them with practical advice. The third concern of the Yi Yang District officials is with assuring people of the safety of the birth control method chosen in order to eliminate unnecessary fears and anxieties about possible side effects. Finally, they stress that family planning assistance should be made available to people at any time. These family planning measures have proved to be very successful and bring about lasting results.     

The evolution of family planning in an African city: Ibadan, Nigeria

Summary Data drawn from a 1973 probability sample of 6,606 Yoruba females, 15-59 years of age in Ibadan City, Nigeria, are employed to analyse changing family planning practice over time. Usage and method rates are calculated for broad age groups from 1930 to 1973. Contraceptive practice is shown to have increased rapidly during the 1960s and early 1970s, from a very low initial base with a doubling period for the proportion of contraceptors of about four years, so that by 1973 one-sixth of the women had practised contraception and one-ninth were currently doing so. The major determinant of contraceptive practice is education. Oral contraceptives and IUDs account for an ever larger proportion of all contraception over time and together made up over 50 per cent by 1973. The Ibadan data give strong support to a suggestion emanating from scattered findings elsewhere that there is a special pattern of sub-Saharan contraceptive use: it begins with use in pre-marital and extra-marital relationships; then is increasingly employed as a substitute for post-marital sexual abstinence, and only later becomes the means for limiting the size of the family. Hence, the success of a family planning programme is indicated by rising average parity among the acceptors. Most couples in Ibadan will probably be practising contraception at some time in the 1980s, but even then such rates will probably still be low in rural areas.     

优生优育与我国乡村计划生育

我国的计划生育在取得了重大成绩的同时,也出现了不可忽视的计划生育城乡偏位问题,长此以往,不仅有悖于计划生育,也不利于人口素质的提高,不利于21世纪中国的国际竞争。为此,我国必须尽快制订能体现优生优育的计划生育法,以提高全民族的素质     

The differential effects and considerations of family planning programs in basic units]

It has been discovered that the grassroots units that did not well in family planning (FP) programs in China were short of funding, while those units that performed poorly had more funds at their disposal. One of the reasons is that communities which did a good job in FP have less violations of the birth policy, and therefore, fewer fines could be collected by the FP unit. But in those grassroots units were the FP policy was not well implemented, there were more cases of births exceeding the birth quota, and more fines could be collected. Such an outcome was penalizing the diligent and rewarding those who did not work hard. This phenomenon was caused by a severe short fall of funding for the FP program. The program budget allocated by the local government was only 1/5 of what was needed, the remaining part was to be provided by fines. The negative consequences of such a practice was damaging to the morale of FP workers. The following suggestions were make for solving the problem. First, the government budget allocation to the FP program should be increased, and part of the budget allocation should be determined by the performance of the FP program. Second, the spending of income from FP fines should be closely monitored to prevent misuse of the fund. Third, fine collection should not be used as means of income generation for the program, and not other agencies should reallocate the funds from fines. Fourth, the government and FP agencies at all administrative levels should pay attention to the management of funds from fines. FP organizations at higher levels should be able to reallocate the funds from fines collected by units with a poor performance to the units with good program performance as an incentive and to supplement their income.     

Childhood mortality,family size and birth order in pre-industrial Europe

Demography - Based on parish registers, demographic histories of Crulai (France), Tourouvre-au-Perche (France), and Geneva (Switzerland) established the childhood mortality experienced by complete...     

Agricultural production responsibility system and the work of family planning in the rural area]

With the establishment of the agricultural production responsibility system, the entire agricultural management and economic system has undergone great changes, and family planning in rural areas has met with many difficulties. Because of this responsibility system, households with more manpower seem to become wealthy more rapidly than others. An existing belief among the rural population is that more children will provide a larger labor force and thus more income. Birth control and family planning are therefore becoming more difficult. In order to change existing beliefs, a comprehensive ideological education for peasants is needed so that they may understand the question of birth control from the viewpoints of national interests. Economic rewards and administrative restrictions may be used as necessary birth control measures. Agricultural production and family planning can be managed well if there is close contact and cooperation between the cadres and the masses. Extra care and benefits should be given to women of childbearing age who undergo birth control operations and agree to a single child in each household. Welfare programs for the masses, such as kindergartens and nursing homes must be established in order to reduce their worries. In addition, efforts are needed to study the new situation and solve new problems. The goal of controlling the rural population growth should be achiefed through practical work and experience.     

To grasp the family planning program early, carefully and surely according to the law of reproduction]

China's February 1982 Directive on Improving Family Planning Work stipulated that family planning should be incorporated into national economic and social planning by understanding it early, carefully, and surely according to the law of reproduction. Understanding family planning early means to implement the policy of birth control as a primary goal, to plan early for births, and to carry out birth control measures, i.e., formulating a plan is the basis of understanding early. For example, the following must be considered when mapping out a plan for 1983: the number of fertile women who wanted children but who remained childless for 3 years of marriage; those who conceived late in 1982 and will deliver in 1983; the number of newlyweds over 23 years of age who have not planned a pregnancy; those with 1 child over 4 years who due to unusual circumstances will have a 2nd child; the number of people planning marriages before March 1983. The next step is to make arrangements, which include submitting individual requests, getting permission from communes and approval from the general public, and delivering contraceptives to the homes of newlyweds and mothers. 9 months after arrangements are completed, adjustments must be made, e.g., those who were unsuccessful in their plan to conceive this year will try the next year. To understand carefully is to understand the concept, circumstances, and data of family planning and thus be able to administer it scientifically. This means primarily controlling fertile women who are newlyweds, mothers of 1 child, and mothers of multiple children. To understand surely is to conform to the organization, concept, policy, planning, and measures of family planning. This means training basic level birth control cadres in population theory and methods of family planning. In addition, it means persuading the masses to be enthusiastic, diligent, fearless, understanding, and to show initiative toward family planning.     

Fertility, mortality, migration and family planning in the Yemen Arab Republic

Abstract Until the end of the seven years' civil war following the revolution of 1962, almost no reliable statistical information of any kind about the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) and its people was available. Since President al-Hamdi's takeover of 1974, the demand for more accurate statistics for developing planning has led to a number of studies which give us the first numerical insights into the dynamics of the Yemen's population. The National Population Census of 1975 is the most important of these studies since it showed two things very clearly. First, it indicated that the Yemen's population is large and concentrated in selected rural areas where there are real problems of crowding and shortages of good agricultural land. Secondly, the Census showed that the lack of domestic economic opportunities partially related to the high rural population densities, and the numerous opportunities in the oil-rich states of the Middle East, especially Sa'udi Arabia, had resulted in an out-migration of young males of prime ages of very large proportions. This article elaborates further on the dynamics of the population in Yemen and reports on the results of a small sample survey carried out in May 1976which provides further insights into the factors affecting fertility and mortality during this early stage of the Yemen's economic and social development.     

Dropping out of post-compulsory education in the UK: an analysis of determinants and outcomes

We analyse the decision to drop out of post-compulsory education over the period 1985–1994 using data from the Youth Cohort Surveys. We show that the dropout rate declined between 1985 and 1994, in spite of the rising participation rate in education, but is still substantial. Dropping out is more or less constant over the period of study, though the risk of dropout does vary with young people’s prior attainment, ethnicity, family background and the state of the labour market. The course of study has a substantial effect on the risk of dropout.

Put the planned birth propaganda and education in number 1 place: a summary of a conference]

The Planned Birth Office of the Chinese State Council convened a National Planned Birth Propaganda Symposium in Beijing from January 10 to 14, 1981. There were over 50 representatives from various provincial, municipal, autonomous regional planned birth offices, Shanghai, Beijing, and Chengdu's Planned Birth Propaganda and Education Centers, the Central Cultural, Education and Public Health Ministries, and various population research centers, and journalists. The Vice-premier of the Chinese State Council, Chen Muhua made the following points in an address to the delegates: planned birth is a longterm project; the 2-fold character of production, i.e., material production and human reproduction, must be properly understood; the goal of limiting China's population to 1,200,000,000 is difficult, so everyone must plan for their families by understanding the work of birth planning early, carefully, and securely, and further that late marriage, late births, few births, and superior births must be advocated the attitude that families without sons will have no heirs must be abolished because girls are heirs too; the fear that China will become an aged society must be ameliorated because China's age structure is a young one. Wang Renchong, Chairman of the Central Propaganda Ministry, also addressed the Symposium. He remarked that with a population approaching 1 billion, 80% of whom are peasants, population control is crucial to the nation's health and survival and is an important part of the Four Modernizations. Birth planning propaganda and education must be given top priority, especially in rural areas. The chairman of the Planned Birth Office of the Chinese State Council closed the meetings by saying that birth planning work must rely on the Party and governmental policies, and especially on propaganda.