Family Structure in China: One Child Policy

China has a One Child Policy in the society to limit its rapid population growth. However, there are many effects on the Chinese society because of this policy. One of the effects is the unbalanced sex ratio. China has a tradition of preferring boys over girls because boys can carry down the family line, unlike girls, once married and will forever belong to her husband's family. This will lead to discrimination against girls and they may be aborted so they will not be born. If girls are borned, the families cannot give birth to another child because of the One Child Policy. Generally, the Chinese are biased towards boys, just because they want their family name to be brought down. Another effect is families will abandon or send their unwanted child for adoption. Most of the unwanted children are girls because the Chinese prefer boys to girls. Overmore, they believe that their unwanted child would have better life in an orphanage than staying with their biological parents. However, this resulted in orphanages being overcrowded and thus, the orphanages have difficulty meeting the children's basic needs. Some couples desire boys but gave birth to a girl instead so they did not report to the authority and secretly abandon or send their unwanted child to an orphanage. Because of the One Child Policy, the rate of abandonment and adoption increase. From these two effects, we can see that the One Child Policy has negative effects on the Chinese society.

-Kah Ghee (15)