• China’s southwestern province of Sichuan will drop restrictions on unmarried people having children.
• Starting from February 15, all citizens – including unmarried parents – can register with no ceiling on the number of children.
• China’s population shrank last year for the first time in more than six decades.

Sichuan, a province in southwest China, will remove restrictions on unmarried individuals having children as part of a larger government effort to increase the nation’s declining birth rate.

The change in policy followed China’s population declining last year for the first time in more than 60 years, a historic turning point in the country’s escalating demographic problem.

Only married couples are currently permitted by the Sichuan government to register the births of up to two children. There is no cap on the number of children that can be registered as of February 15; this includes unmarried parents.

In China, parents frequently need to register their child’s birth in order to get benefits like maternity insurance. Additionally, a hukou, a document used to register a home, is required to give kids access to social welfare, such as healthcare and education.

The new rules, according to a statement from the Sichuan Provincial Health Commission, changed the emphasis of birth registration to “the desire and results of childbirth.”

According to a representative of the Sichuan Health Commission, the goal of the policy is to protect the rights of single moms rather than to promote the parenthood of unmarried individuals. The strategy would support “long-term and balanced population development,” according to the commission’s declaration.

According to the new regulations, single parents in Sichuan will now be able to take use of benefits that were previously only available to married couples. These benefits include maternity insurance, which pays for paid maternity leave and prenatal care.

Sichuan is the sixth most populous province in China, with a population of more than 83 million.

Its easing of the rules for birth registration follows similar moves made by other provinces, including Guangdong and Shaanxi.

Policymakers have been particularly concerned about China’s demographic dilemma, which is predicted to have a growing influence on GDP in the years to come.

After understanding that the limitation has contributed to a fast aging population and a diminishing workforce that may seriously jeopardize the nation’s economic and social stability, Beijing ended its decades-long and highly contentious “one child” policy in 2015.

The Chinese government stated in 2015 that it will permit married couples to have two children in an effort to reverse the nation’s declining birth rate. However, notwithstanding a small increase in 2016, the national birth rate has kept declining.

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