It is shocking that almost half of the married women who are able to give birth say they feel they do not have to have children. Such are the results of Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs researcher Kim Seung Gwon, who finds that the number of women not interested in having children has increased five-fold compared to just ten years ago. The low birthrate is a rapidly progressing trend in Korea but is not exactly news. As of 2003 women gave birth to 1.19 children, one of the lowest rates in the world. If the trend continues, by 2050 the number of children being born will be half of what it is currently.
Local governments are subsidizing childbirth and giving childcare support, and recently the national government got involved too, so as to turn the situation around. There is a presidential commission on the low birthrate and ageing society, and the government and civic groups have formed something the "national headquarters for overcoming the low birthrate."
What is of concern is that one doubts how effective the measures being proposed will actually be. The cause of the low birthrate is twofold; the young generation tends to place a lot of importance on the pursuit of individual happiness and a high quality of life, and then there is the feeling that giving birth and raising children in society with extremes of competition is a difficult thing to do. The result is that there are social issues such as a shrinking industrial population and increasing welfare costs, and individually speaking people are giving up one of the most important experiences and relationships in life. You have to conclude that our society has a serious problem.
Policy meant to deal with the low birthrate, therefore, needs to think of more than just simple ways to lure people to have them. The problem relates to the need to make our society one where people want to live. The country has to think of ways to utilize the rapidly increasing number of elderly, bring highly educated women into the public sector instead of having them just do housework, expand the scope of public education so as to reduce the financial burden of excessive private tutoring, and let fathers participate in raising and educating their children by leaving their professions for a certain period of time to share in that with their wives.
The Hankyoreh, 7 April 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] A Society Scared to Have Children |
