A Chinese city’s plan to fine mothers who have a child out of wedlock has sparked criticism that the policy is discriminatory and could lead to an increase in abandoned babies.
Such babies will provoke a “social compensation fee”, said an official of Wuhan city in central Hubei province on Monday.
One expert said it was the first time out-of-wedlock children had been expressly singled out for penalty by one of the municipalities, which have flexibility in how they enforce population-control policies. It also came just days after the rescue of a young unmarried mother’s newborn from a sewer pipe in eastern China prompted discussion over the stigma that single mothers face.
On Friday, Wuhan city published online a draft updated family planning policy which it says is aimed at keeping the city’s birth rate at a low level.
The policy says “the parties” should pay the fee in cases of such births. Chen Yaya, a gender equality researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said unmarried mothers already faced discrimination, including being barred from receiving maternity benefits from the government.
Social compensation fees are levied on people who break China’s strict family planning policy. It depends on the province and the whim of the local family planning bureau, and the children are denied education and health benefits.
