中英文 中国的计划生育(95.8)

knowledge of population, childbirth, contraception and birth control, maternity and child care through the lectures or advice given by doctors, teachers and cadres. Then they may practise family planning more

conscientiously. For instance, in Tieling City located in the northern mountain areas of Liaoning Province, whose agricultural population makes up 80 percent of the total, more than 700,000, or 95 percent, of the couples of child-bearing age received education from 1987 to 1991. In the past, of the city's annual newly born babies, about 10 percent were born to parents who married early and had children early; and the rate of births with genetic defects reached nearly 15 per thousand because of the marriage between close relatives, or hereditary and endemic diseases. After education, the percentage of the people who married early and had children early dropped to below 1 percent and the birth defect rate, to below 8 per thousand in 1991. Now 92 percent of the couples of child-bearing age in the city have adopted birth control measures of their own accord.

Cadres at all levels taking the lead in practising family planning has exerted great influences among the people all over the country. For instance, each of over 50,000 cadres and Party members in Rudong County, Jiangsu Province has exemplarily implemented the state's family planning policy. Under their influence, the broad masses of the people actively respond to the government's call and practise family planning of their own free will.

The activities of family planning associations in all areas have also played an important role in publicity and education. Consisting of people from all walks of life who are interested in family planning, these associations are mass organizations with an extensive social basis. Up to now, all 30 provinces, autonomous regions and centrally administered municipalities as well as the overwhelming majority of the cities, counties and grass-roots units have set up their family planning associations, totalling more than one million with approximately 80 million members. Their members keep in close touch with the broad masses of the couples of child-bearing age. A family planning work situation with self-education and self-management as the mainstay is being formed step by step.

China makes full use of newspapers, radio, television, publication, theatre, music, local performances and schools to educate people about family planning. In addition, it has also set up a family planning publicity and education network reaching all parts of the country. In the late 1980s, all provinces, autonomous regions and centrally administered municipalities and the cities with economic planning directly supervised by the State Council (except Tibet Autonomous Region) set up regional

family planning publicity and education centres one after another, which produced more than 1,600 television programmes and video tapes, and numerous publicity materials of various kinds. By 1994, two administrative officials' colleges, eight secondary professional schools and 26 provincial training centres had been founded as part of the national family planning system. Each city, county and township has a family planning service station focused on publicity and education; and all residents' and villagers' committees have a member responsible for propagating birth control education. Educational institutions of higher learning and research institutes in China also take an active part in training and research in population and birth control. The China

Population Society, the China Population Culture Promotion Society and other organizations have also played an active role in organizing

demographers, literary and art workers and people from all walks of life to participate in family planning work.

Publicity and education, which has resulted in the common understanding and conscientious participation of hundreds of millions of people, is the fundamental guarantee of the successful implementation of family planning in China.Go To The Top

V. Satisfying the Reproductive

Health Needs of

People of Child-bearing Age

While advocating family planning, China has mainly focused on

contraception. Providing family planning information, consultation and services is an important measure in promoting family planning. The Chinese government attaches great importance to meeting the various and

multi-level needs of people of child-bearing age by relying on progress in science and technology, and the study and development of the methods of family planning and contraception. In addition, the government has also established family planning and maternity and child care service networks throughout the country to provide people of child-bearing age with safe, effective and convenient services of family planning and reproductive health care, thus ensuring the smooth expansion of family planning. Back in the 1960s, China embarked on scientific research on contraception, and soon made a large number of achievements, which were popularized all over the country. In the 1980s, China formulated the programme for the scientific and technological development of family planning, and has formed an initial, geographically rationally distributed system for

family planning scientific research and the production of contraceptives. China has produced contraceptive and birth control technological services providing a great variety of methods for people to select as they wish. China leads the world in the research on male contraception techniques, some of which have been listed as the ones to be promoted by the World Association of Voluntary Surgical Contraception (AVSC). China has also made quite a number of important achievements in research of female contraception techniques, some of which have been extensively used in China and abroad. China has been included among those advanced countries in the development of contraceptives. While improving the quality of existing contraceptives, China is sparing no effort to develop safer, more effective, more convenient and cheaper contraceptives. To meet the demands of people of child-bearing age for contraceptives, the state has organized more than 40 factories and invested nearly 200 million yuan in the production of various contraceptives every year. Now the production of contraceptives in China has basically become self-sufficient. To ensure that people of child-bearing age can receive required services at any time and in any place, China has established countrywide family planning service networks consisting of hospitals, maternity and child care centres and family planning service stations. Following the principle of catering to grass-roots units, going deep into the countryside, offering services to people's doorsteps and providing conveniences to the people, family planning workers provide people of child-bearing age with guidance, advice and services, and help them select favourable contraceptive methods according to their health and needs. In light of the actual conditions in rural areas, women of child-bearing age there with one child are encouraged to use intrauterine device and either the wife or husband of a couple with two children is encouraged to undergo sterilization, which are safe and effective contraceptive measures favourable to the protection of women's health. Therefore they are more easily accepted by rural couples of child-bearing age. As to those couples who are unsuitable or unwilling to accept such measures, family planning workers guide them to select other contraceptive measures according to their needs. At present, more than 200 million married couples of

child-bearing age in China have adopted contraceptive measures, making up about 80 percent of the country's total.

Starting from the 1960s, China distributed contraceptives free of charge, and exempted and reduced the fees for birth control technical services. Since 1988, China has implemented the system of combining the supply of free contraceptives with retail sales in the market, thus widening the supply channels, providing conveniences to the people, satisfying their needs and raising the utilization rate of contraceptives. To ensure that

people can get contraceptives in time, specialized organs have been set up or special personnel assigned for this purpose from the provincial and city down to the township and village levels.

The Chinese government is against promoting induced abortion as a means of family planning. China allows women who require induced abortion to have such an operation under safe and reliable conditions. Along with the popularization of the scientific knowledge of family planning and the extensive adoption of contraceptive measures, the number of induced abortions has been on the decline in many places. When China's birth rate drops sharply, the annual ratio between the number of newly born babies and that of induced abortions has retained at around 1:0.3, equivalent to the medium level in the world.

To guarantee the health of babies and mothers, China has made efforts to improve medical and health care conditions and strengthen health care services for women and children while doing a job in family planning. Consequently, the improvement of women's and children's health has also promoted family planning. China has set up health care networks for women and children all over the country. Several thousand maternity and child care centres provide various services, including the general survey, prevention and treatment of women's diseases, consultation on hereditary diseases, examination before marriage, health care for pregnant and postpartum women, new delivery methods, health care for babies and young children, etc. The family planning departments in many places have initiated health-care-at-childbirth services for couples of

child-bearing age. In spite of their comparatively backward medical and health care conditions, the health care and family planning departments in some economically underdeveloped regions have organized people to provide services to the people at their doorsteps to protect women and children's health, so that they are highly acclaimed by the people.Go To The Top

VI. Optimization Through Reform and

Development

Practice has shown that China's population and family planning programme has been crowned with success. But we should also clearly see that there is still imbalance in development in various areas, instability in fertility levels in many regions, and the high birth rate in others. The working style and service level concerning family planning in most rural regions, especially in some economically underdeveloped areas, remain to be improved. In the process of establishing the socialist market economic