China is hard against the bridal prices to increase the birth rate

china is hard against the exploding "bride prices" to counter the falling birth rates.

according to an old tradition-which goes back to the western Zhou dynasty (1046 BC to 771 BC)-a future groom pays the bride's family to show its sincerity and wealth, similar to a dowry. Bridal prices are widespread in large parts of South Asia.

However, payments have reached all-time highs in recent years-in some provinces on average $ 20,000-and make marriage more and more unafforders.

concerned about China's first decline in population for six decades and the rapidly aging population introduces the authorities a number of measures to initiate a “new era” of marriage and children's war.

Local governments have started to start propaganda campaigns in which they instruct unmarried women, not with each other to compete with the highest prices. Some city officials introduced upper limits and intervened directly in private negotiations between families. according to the New York Times .

in Daijiapu, a city in the southeast of China, recently gathered women in a local community center to sign a public promise to reject high "bride prices". On the front of the room there was a sign with the inscription: "Symposium of unmarried young women at the right age."

The local government described the event on its website and said that it hopes that people will give up such backward customs and contribute to "initiating a new civilized trend".

Freezing egg cells and IVF

The reduction in bridal prices is just one of the projects, the China Family Planning Association, a national organization that implements the government's population and fertility measures in more than 20 cities to increase the country's population. Another will encourage parents to share responsibility for raising children.

The previous measures of Chinese provinces include tax incentives, residential grants and free or subsidized education for the birth of a third child.

In March, the government's political advisors suggested that single and unmarried women should be given access to freezing egg cells and for IVF treatment in order to increase the country's fertility rate.

"Society has to introduce young people to the concept of marriage and birth," Demographer He Yafu told Global Times.

The campaign met with criticism, and commentators on Chinese social media platforms asked why the burden of solution to the problem is based on women.

Even the latest measures to increase fertility have had no effect, since some women say that the measures do not effectively take into account the costs of childcare. In the meantime, many women have decided against children due to the social pressure to end their career.

China carried out a rigid one-child policy-the cause of many of its demographic challenges that have made India the most populous country in the world. In the meantime, the border has been raised to three children.

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