South Korean women are getting incentives
from the government to have babies as the country struggles to overcome
its low read more..........
birth rate, reports Yonhap. Kang Mi-ok received 2 million won
(US$1,700) from a rural county in central South Korea in August. The
money was meant to promote the birth of a fourth baby. She is set to
receive another 8 million won in installments by 2020 from Cheongyang
County, South Chungcheong Province, to help her raise the baby.
“It’s
completely a bonanza,” Kang said as she was caring for four children
with her husband at a cafe in Cheongyang, 160 kilometers south of Seoul.
The young housewife said the financial incentives are a great help to
her family in raising four children.
Kang’s case illustrates South
Korea’s desperate efforts to raise its birthrate — one of the lowest in
the world — at a time when many young people delay marriage as they
cannot find decent jobs amid a prolonged economic slowdown. The
unemployment rate for young people between 15 and 29 years of age
reached 8.4 percent in December, much higher than the overall jobless
rate of 3.2 percent, according to government data.
South Korea’s
total fertility rate — the average number of children a woman bears in
her lifetime — stood at 1.24 in 2015, much lower than the replacement
level of 2.1 that would keep South Korea’s population of 51 million
stable.
Earlier this week, acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn called on
officials to address the issues that make people reluctant to get
married and give birth, noting South Korea has failed to get out of the
“quagmire of low birthrate” for more than 15 years. Ranking officials of
central and provincial governments meet in Busan on Oct. 28, 2016, to
discuss measures to boost the nation’s birthrate. (Yonhap file photo)
The
low birthrate has prompted South Korea’s central and provincial
governments to come up with financial incentives and other measures to
try to encourage young people to have more babies. Lee Suk-hwa, the head
of Cheongyang County, said his county began last year to give 10
million won to parents who have a fourth baby as part of efforts to
encourage more young people to have more babies in rural areas. He also
said his county has set up a 20 billion won fund to offer scholarships
for college students from Cheongyang.
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