“…China is relaxing its one-child policy for earthquake survivors, giving some solace to grieving parents whose children were killed or disabled…”

Source: AP

China is relaxing its one-child policy for earthquake survivors, giving some solace to grieving parents whose children were killed or disabled.

Couples whose only child was killed, severely injured or disabled in the quake can get a certificate allowing them to have another child, the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee, which oversees the policy in the capital of Sichuan Province, said Monday.

The May 12 earthquake was especially painful to many Chinese because it killed many children from one-child families. The destruction of almost 7,000 classrooms during a single school day stunned China, with newspaper photos focusing on piles of dusty schoolbags and small hands extending from the debris.

With so many broken families asking questions, the Chengdu committee is clarifying existing one-child policy guidelines to make them specific to the families of quake victims, a committee official who gave only his surname, Wang, said. “There are just a lot of cases now,” he said.

Chen Xueyun is one of them. His 8-year-old son, Weixi, was killed when the family apartment in Qingchuan collapsed. Chen said he searched three days before finding the boy’s body. He wears his son’s blue plastic watch as a reminder.

Chen said the announcement Monday could offer some parents some hope - after their grief subsides.

“If they are still sad and depressed, it’s impossible to talk about another baby,” he said. “But in the future, it could be quite helpful for them.”

The announcement affects the city of Chengdu, which has 10 million people, as well as two of the hardest-hit cities nearby, Dujiangyan and Pengzhou.

It was not clear whether other cities in the quake zone, including Qingchuan, would make similar announcements. A woman answering phones at the Sichuan provincial family planning office said officials were studying the issue. She did not give her name, as is common in China.

The one-child policy was introduced in the late 1970s to control the exploding population and ensure better education and health care. The law provides certain exceptions for ethnic groups, rural families and families where both parents are only children.

The government says the policy has prevented 400 million births, but critics say it has also led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously unbalanced gender ratio as families abort girls because of a traditional preference for boys.

The announcement offers a glimpse into the workings of the one-child system. Couples who have more than one child are commonly punished by fines. The announcement says that if a child born illegally was killed in the quake, the parents will no longer have to pay fines for that child - but the previously paid fines will not be refunded.

If a couple’s legally born child was killed and the couple is left with an illegally born child under the age of 18, that child can be registered as the legal child - an important move that gives the child previously denied rights including nine years of free compulsory education.

Many Chinese have shown interest in adopting earthquake orphans, and the announcement says there are no limits on the number a family can adopt.