Scholars praised the recent announcement by Chongqing Municipality in Southwest China that it will legislate paid leave for children from one-child families that would free them to care for their elderly parents.

---

Scholars praised the recent announcement by Chongqing Municipality in Southwest China that it will legislate paid leave for children of one-child families that would free them to care for their elderly parents.

In recent years, similar policies have been unveiled in Henan, Fujian and Hainan provinces that grant children of one-child households 10 to 20 days of paid leave to attend to duties related to caring for their parents.

The rules vary from region to region, but most are limited only to children whose parents hold the Honor Certificate for the Parents of an Only Child, are over the age of 60 and confined to a hospital or other senior care facility.

These policies are a response to the increasingly grim situation of seniors in China. According to the Social Services Development Statistics Bulletin of 2016, the number of citizens over the age of 60 had reached 230.86 million by 2016, accounting for 16.7 percent of the entire Chinese population. They include parents of the first generation to be raised under China’s One-Child Policy.

Gui Shixun, a tenured professor from the Population Research Institute at East China Normal University, noted that scholars in Shanghai had proposed paid leave for children to care for their parents in the 1980s, but population aging was not as severe at the time, so their proposal was not adopted.

The latest policies that ensure children of single-child families enough time to look after their sick parents represent a breakthrough, though the amount of leave they grant is short and can hardly solve the real issue, Gui said.

“The regulations of ‘nursing leave’ for children of one-child households can be regarded as a supplement to the benefit-oriented family-planning mechanism, reflecting the government’s performance of duties for one-child families,” said Cui Shuyi, director of the Institute of Population Studies at the Shandong Academy of Social Sciences.

Stressing that the one-child families have made contributions to the smooth implementation of China’s population policy and socioeconomic development, Cui said the nursing leave regulations are a compensation for only-child parents and conducive to the building of family development and support systems as well as social harmony and stability.

    The policies have met with mixed views among the public. One concern is whether they can be implemented. Some worry that only a handful can benefit, given fierce vocational competition, while some complain there are too many requirements.

Cui said that people should be mentally prepared for difficulties looming in the implementation of the regulations. “Don’t expect nursing leave to completely solve the problem of caring for seniors,” Cui said, adding that they should ultimately rely on social pensions, government-supported home-based care by communities or care by institutions.

The policies unveiled by different regions still have room for improvement, Cui said. First, the labor cost incurred by the leave should not be borne by enterprises only. Enterprises should be compensated through tax incentives, rewards or subsidies.

Moreover, the age requirement should be removed to cut red tape and enhance fairness, Cui argued, adding that it is important to strengthen supervision and put in place rewards and punishments, as well as publicize the regulations.

Cui also pointed out that the policies tend to benefit one-child families in cities more, especially when the one child has regular jobs. However, all seniors are facing a shortage of hands to take care of them, so the problem is not exclusive to one-child families, he said, calling for attention to the rights and interests of self-employed offspring of one-child families, empty-nesters and seniors who have lost their only child.

Ren Yuan, a professor from the Center for Population and Development Policy Studies at Fudan University, said that leave is insufficient to address difficulties in family life, so the key is to improve the social care system.

Ren suggested developing a social welfare and security system serving the entire population. For example, the nursing leave for one-child families should gradually turn into paid leave for all employees and laborers or flexible work arrangements.

 

 

 

WU NAN is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.