Ageing Shanghai urges couples to have a second child
China's policy dilemma is highlighted in city where a third of population will hit 60 by 2016
China is caught in a population policy dilemma, as the world's most populous nation struggles to strike a balance between its strict domestic migration controls that limit the influx of rural residents to cities and its need to deal with a rapidly ageing population.
In a rare public call, an official at Shanghai's Population and Family Planning Commission, which oversees the city's birth control, appealed for "qualified young couples" to have two children.
The comment came on Sunday during a consultation as part of the annual meeting of the Shanghai people's congress, the Oriental Morning Post reported.
The official was quoted as saying the benefits of having a second child included family stability and social development.
China lifted its decades-long one-child policy in November 2013; couples can apply for permission to have a second child if one of the parents is an only child.
Yet the impact of the change in policy has not been as great as expected. Commission figures showed 90 per cent of local women of reproductive age were eligible, but less than five per cent of them had applied, said Fan Hua, director of the commission's family development bureau.