In need of more babies, this Chinese province is thinking of 1-year paid maternity leave

China has very quickly shifted from one-child policy and forcing women to get abortions, to now mulling over giving an additional six months of maternity leave. Reason? China wants to be on par with other developed nations in Europe.

A north-west province in China, Shaanxi, is now asking locals if the authorities should sanction additional six weeks of paid maternity leaves. As of now, employees are given six months of paid maternity leaves. However, now the authorities are seeking to make increase this duration to one year.

Shaanxi is hoping that if locals are given an additional half a year’s paid maternity leaves in addition to the already existing 168 days, this will help put the province in the same league as some of the other developed European countries such as Norway and Germany.

In addition to this, the province is also thinking of extending the paternity leave to 30 days for the couples who plan on having a third child.

This shift in policies has come as a shock for locals as well as rest of the world as there was once a time when China was alleged of forcing women to have abortions as couples were allowed to have only one child per household.

At that time, this restriction was a result of China's fear of being over-populated and in order to control the population burst, the government had implemented the one-child policy and carried it on for many years.

However, in May 2021, the Chinese government had announced that married couples were now allowed to and motivated to birth up to three children. This decision was taken after experts observed that the officials data pointed out an alarming decline in birth rate of the once populous country.

It’s not just Shaanxi, there are several other provinces where new couple-friendly rules are being formed or considered. Some provinces have also introduced "child-raising leave" for the couples who have children under the age of three.  Another example is of southern island province of Hainan where couples are being given one hour free every day to help them raise their child.