Imagine

In the rubble of the Sichuan earthquake, came hoards of horrific pictures; one piled up upon the another, until they nearly numbed the viewer. Children were buried in their collapsed schools and many others orphaned. But no other images affected me as deeply as those of grieving parents who because of China's one-child policy, would have lost their only children.

In the wake of the quake, Beijing says that couples who have lost their only child will be permitted to have another one. But the relaxation of this policy should extend further beyond the recent disaster. True, the one-child policy has succeeded in it's original aims. It has slashed China's birth rate drastically, multiplied the country's economic growth and brought more women into the workforce.

But as you dig a little deeper, the severe side effects become more obvious. China faces a demographic nightmare. Its rapidly aging population could suffer a major labor shortage in the next few decades. It will have millions of elderly people with few kids and an ill equipped social and medical infrastructure to care for them.

I somehow can't imagine a government telling me that I can't have more than one kid or forcing me to get rid of a new, additional baby. I guess that's one side effect of growing up in India - anything goes and to be more precise..the more the merrier :D And as each year goes by, I take greater comfort from having a sibling.

I think the time has come for the one-child policy to be phased out. The Sichuan quake and its grieving families could just be the catalyst. If appropriate steps are taken now, at a time when the state has a vast reserve of wealth, the future of China may not be as catastrophic as the Sichuan quake.