China’s top legislature has formally adopted a resolution to ease the country’s one-child policy, the state news agency reports.
A resolution was passed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress ,allowing couples to have two children if either parent is an only child.
A proposal to abolish re-education through labour camps was also approved.
The changes in policy were announced following a meeting of top Communist Party officials in November.
The reforms, which came at the end of a six-day meeting of the congress, have already been tested in parts of the country.
They needed formal legislative approval to be put into effect.
It is expected that reforms will be rolled out gradually and incremental around the country, with provincial authorities entrusted to make their own decisions on implementation according to the local demographic situation.
China’s one-child policy
- China’s population-control policy was introduced in 1979 and restricts couples in urban areas to only one child
- In rural areas, families are allowed to have two children if the first is a girl.
- Other exceptions include ethnic minorities and couples who both lack siblings themselves
- The policy has meant that about one-third of China’s 1.3 billion citizens cannot have a second child without incurring a fine
- Campaigners say it has led to forced abortions, female infanticide, and the under-reporting of female births
- It is also implicated as a cause of China’s gender imbalance