China: Of One-Child Policy And Women Astronauts

By Anila Kurian:

China is a country that gave importance to women and recorded all their successes with great pride on their shoulders. The Chinese have come from all the walks of life and worked their way up to make their place in the world. Although so much of success and proud moments have been framed by the Chinese, the lives of women there are to the extreme. When one is put in the spotlight for being a woman who went to the outer space, the other is forced to abort her second child as it’s not allowed.

The Government of China has done a lot wonderful things for women’s right. They even plan on solving all the abuses that women face and put a stop to it in the coming years. They allow their women to be educated at whatever level they want to get to. Yes, they do help the women out, but yet they don’t give her a chance to have another child of her own? What right does the Government have to ‘plan’ how many children a woman should have? The Chinese Government’s one-child policy seems to be a great idea to reduce population but that doesn’t mean they should kill an innocent infant that doesn’t even know what’s happening in today’s world.

I found it flabbergasting to find out that 13 million abortions are performed in China every year. What makes it worse is that, the ‘every other child must die policy’ has become so strict that if parents are expecting a second child, the government has every right to fine them or punish them. According to the law, if they disobey the law, they can be fined ten times the parent’s annual income. Fearing this, many women abort their poor, innocent infants or run for their lives.

The story becomes even crazier as the teachers can be held responsible for permitting the second child to attend school. China is turning into a country where having a brother or sister is a crime. Soon enough, cousins will be banned too. Can you imagine not having any cousins or siblings as you grow up? Can you imagine having the option of being the only child? I definitely cannot.

According to the law, if the woman is pregnant with her second child, she is taken to the hospital forcefully to get the baby aborted. They hospital has been given every right to do whatever they have to do to abort the infant. This of course leads to depression for the mother, and many of them attempt suicide. The sad part is that, many of the mothers who suicide are under the age of 20.

There’s no point in being a great country if the government is making all the plans for the family. They should have no right to tell a family how they should live their life and with how many children. Especially being a country with such great reputation in all walks of life, planning one’s family is just crossing the line.

Then again, China is the largest country, twice the size of the U.S. If this continues, the government of China will be known as the ‘souless and heartless government’. It can’t just be about the government and how they think the country should run. If it weren’t for the people, the country wouldn’t even exist. It’s high time that the government realizes that and back off from one’s family life before they get screwed over.

This one-child policy was to end on September 25, 2010, which was 30 years after it actually began. This continues till date and it’s insane to think that China is a developed country at so many levels and a completely under developed country at basic social rights.

I firmly believe that the citizens should be given the right and the government should not be given even a tiny space to ‘plan’ one’s family. If they can give way for a woman to reach outer space, why not let her create her own jammed life with more than one child!