Critical Biography Term Paper: The Child and Society

Children and Society
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CHILDREN AND SOCIETY
Every other living thing has the genetic and intrinsic need to procreate and bear offspring, for the sole purpose of species continuation and the humans are no exception, which partly explains the value accorded to the children in the society. There exist some different viewpoints regarding the proper role that children play within the society, as well as the extent into which they are considered useful (Mills & Mills, 2000). This partly depends on the societal and cultural values and the social status of the parents. In some communities, exceeding a certain number of children is considered illegal, against cultural beliefs while in others children are blessings. The embraced roles and responsibilities of the children have been altered dramatically in the entire world. As such, some of the nations have come up with policies that seek to reduce the rate of population growth, while others are encouraging child bearing for the fear of the consequences associated with high populations of the elderly. There is a story of Chyong Hyong, a child born in China during the error of policies to reduce overpopulation, and the issues that befell him as he grew.
Young Hyong, born in China, found himself in the middle of the overpopulation debate. Born of a relatively poor family, his life took the turn for the worst with the help of the government. The family was not just having a hard time with the new policy; their economic status was worsening every year that passed. The policy revolution took place around the year 1915; one year after the Republic of China was formed. The child bearing trend could not be left as it were because overpopulation brought about great losses and strains to the country and thus the government found it worth to research on measures suitable for controlling the population growth rate. Rampant poverty was one of the strains that were top of the list of strains the country was going through. One of the ways that was considered was through implementation of birth control techniques, where the public was required comply with the methods of family planning. However, some cultural practices and beliefs did not allow these practice that included vasectomy and abortion (James & Prout, 2001). Hyong was still in his mother’s womb, when the stiff policies were implemented. As such, he was affected given that his parents had two other children. The two were boys; with the older one, Han, being four years while the younger one was three. They were always dressed in the same clothes all year, but that did not worry them as they had gotten used to the situation by now. Food was the prime issue as sometimes it was hard to come by sometime. At their age, the thought of another brother in the lineup did not worry them as much; they had other thoughts on their minds and were too young to understand the kind of pressure the parents were going through. To the government, this meant that more children would be a nuisance to economy and the dwindling resources (Keating, 1996).
This meant that each family had to have a limited number of children in order to control both the economic and development status. Hyong was already in the lime light of the government for all the wrong reasons other than the parents took him as a blessing. However, there was also the issue of the enormous need to fill in the labor gap in the industries (Von, 2008). Majority of the leaders in the government argued that if the people were asked to reduce their rate of fertility, it would be easy to achieve a stable population size. After realizing that the population control would need a long term of proactive approach, China began to mass distribute and produce contraceptives that included diaphragms, condoms, as well as spermicidal jelly (Handel, Cahill & Elkin, 2006). The members of the public were expected to comply with these new measures, but, majorities were hesitant given that most of the contraceptives provided had low quality and they feared they could have resulted to other complications. On the other hand, the issue of using the contraceptives had not been discussed exhaustively as the culture did not allow the people to talk about sex openly. The methods of offering contraceptives to the childbearing women were also a hindrance, as they were only able to reach 2.2% of the population. Later presence of famine from the year 1959 to 1961 temporarily disrupted the efforts of family planning in the country.
Nevertheless, after recovery from the famine, the government leaders decided to commence campaign for a new birth control. The efforts of this practice included contraceptives as well as massive campaigns through the media that promoted late marriages, low rates of births, and the employment of intrauterine devices (Frankel, 2012). Vasectomies were also introduced and among the men in order to reduce fertility. Most of the family planning programs were derailed in the era of Cultural Revolution. In the year, 1960 the government took further measures of enforcing the policies of birth control, when they establish the first Family planning Office to oversee the family planning programs. Most of these programs focused on the urban areas with contemporary medical access and facilities to birth control supplies (Children in a violent society, 1998). Moreover, the government officials took more control in cities where they would enforce policies; monitor residents as well as going to the extent of threatening the people who refused to comply. Even then, Hyong’s family had not been touched or affected by this policy because they lived in the rural areas, where the implementation of such programs and policies took time to introduce. The Cultural Revolution was used to push the policy to the rural areas in the year 1966 to 1969 and at that time; numerous networks of the urban family planning had expanded their control to the towns and the countryside. Although there was a lot of derailment in this era of Cultural Revolution in the early 19th century, the nation rose to the position of promoting fertility reduction again. The government made considerable efforts to make sure that the popularity of the contraceptive strategies was understood and accessible.
Part of the efforts also included massive research that made sure that the technology used in the contraceptives matched with the task, in a bid to build the confidence in the public and support for the program. Significant results were recorded in the 70s with reference to success of the birth co...