[Sichuan adopts family planning measures]

The revolutionary committee of Sichuan Province recently issued a series of measures on family planning, which came into effect on a trial basis from March 1. Sichuan is the province with the biggest population in China, accounting for 10% of the country's total. The trial measures provide for working parents who have only 1 child and who guarantee not to have a 2nd to receive 5 yuan a month in child welfare subsidies till the child is 14 years old. Such 1 child families will also be entitled to an equal amount of living space as a family of 4 and the child will have priority of admission to schools and factories provided they meet the entrance requirements. Peasant families which have only 1 child and guarantee not to have a 2nd are eligible for the following: Production teams give a sum of money equal to 3 workdays/month till the child is 14 years old and the child received an adult's grain ration and counts as 1.5 persons in distributions of plots of private use. If a child becomes disabled or dies, parents may have another child and enjoy the same treatment. In addition, the new regulations state that the "state and the people's communes guarantee that the standard of living of old widows and widowers will be a little higher than that of other commune peasants in the locality. People of the province in every walk of life warmly support the publication of the new measures. It is estimated that about 24% of the families with only 1 child in a Chongqing District will not have the 2nd. 86 1-child families in 1 rural people's commune have taken birth control measures. Women cadres and medical workers throughout the province have been very active in carrying out educational programs on family planning. Population growth in the province was 3.11% in 1970 and 0.867 in 1977. It dropped to 0.606 last year. The figure is slightly higher than for Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. Speaking about the importance of the new economic measures, Liu Haiquan, vice-chairman of the provincial revolutionary committee, said: "In a socialist society, the population factor is closely connected with the planned, proportionate development of the national economy. Bearing children is also a matter of economics."