Farmers Taught Population ControlPeople in Hubei Province can expect better family planning services and improved social insurance in coming years.The government will spare no effort to help farmers become better-off and improve services to prevent birth defects and birth-related diseases, said Shi Zhongchuan, leading officer of Hubei Provincial Family Planning Commission. According to Shi, the provincial government will implement four major population projects in the next decade. Health experts and family planning workers will go to villages to provide contraceptives and treatment for all fertile women. Pensions and family planning related insurance will be further extended to relieve people of the worry that their single child or two daughters would not be able to take care of them when they become old. The provincial government will continue to link family planning with economic development. Happy and better-off families in rural areas will follow family planning policies voluntarily. A chain-service system will be adopted to provide consulting and services for people of different ages, discussing with adolescents about sex, giving guidance to young couples before and after marriage and child-birth and teaching parents how to bring up children properly. Hubei, with a population of 60 million, is one of the nine most populous provinces in China. In the next decade, the province will see a great increase in the number of fertile women, up to 18.1 million by 2011, 8 million more than at present. One expert has anticipated that the province will meet its population peak of 73.3 million around year 2035. Farmers in Hubei now possess only 0.1 hectare per person, almost three-quarters of the national average and one-sixth of the world average. It is estimated that by 2035, per capita arable land in Hubei may further decrease to 0.08 hectare, crossing the warning-line for potential food shortage set by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. According to Shi, the province now faces new challenges in family planning: the increase of migrants, higher unemployment, an ageing population and more pre-marital sexual contact. |
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