Proposal on nursery provision meets with mothers’ approval
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E-mail Xinhua, March 14, 2017
China's working mothers have welcomed a proposal on the provision of public nursery services made at the annual two sessions in Beijing.
The proposal states that financial support for public nursery services and private investment in the sector must be encouraged.
“I am looking for a qualified nursery for my 2-year-old son as his grandma can no longer take care of him due to poor health,” said Bi Huahua, who works for a foreign enterprise in the capital.
“Public kindergartens usually take children who are more than 3 years old, but I can’t wait another year.”
A lack of eligible people to take care of children has become a common headache for working parents in China’s major cities.
“A qualified nursery will help working moms to balance their lives, and I am really looking forward to that,” one mother posted on WeChat.
Another post on Weibo stated: “Professional nurseries will help to reduce quarrels with our mothers-in-law as we sometimes disagree on how to raise a child, and developed countries already provide such services.”
China implemented its one-child policy in the late 1970s to rein in a surging population.
In order to cope with an aging society, since January 1 last year married couples have been allowed to have two children. That followed an easing of the policy in 2013 to allow couples to have a second child if either parent was an only child.
However, according to a survey of 10,000 families with children under 15 by the All-China Women’s Federation last December, 53.3 percent of one-child families do not want a second child.
Surveys by the National Health and Family Planning Commission showed that there were three main factors affecting the willingness to have a second child — women’s career development, insufficient child-care resources, especially for toddlers, and financial considerations.
In an effort to support the two-child policy, China has promised to provide 89,000 more maternity beds as well as 140,000 more obstetricians and midwives by 2020.
“The government is considering a tax deduction for two-child families,” said Finance Minister Xiao Jie at a press conference during the two sessions.
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