Since that point the birth rate literally exploded. The population of Singapore was happy for a long time, to be independent and without war. But the War and the Japanese occupier destroyed most of the infrastructure (like water and electricity) and many houses weren’t habitable. The Singapore government let new big buildings building immediately, but in 1947 the average people living in one building was 18,7. Also Singapore had one of the worst slums in the world according to the British Housing Committee Report. However the birthrate still increased. In 1957 the average number of children per woman was six. The growth rate of the whole country was from 1947 to 1957 84.7%. In 1965 every 11 minutes a new child was born. The growth rate from 1957 to 1970 was 90.8%.
The Singapore Government had to react in the late 1960s because Singapore was close to the both last steps of the demographic transition. The Government started the two Child policies. They used drastic methods to achieve their aim to reduce effective the birth rate. In the year 1970 they legalised abortion and sterilisation. Women with more than two children were urged to get sterilised after their second. Women with a low education were a payment offered to get “voluntary” sterilised. Furthermore the government increased the costs of having a third baby.
This policy didn’t allowed many women to have a third child and so the birth rate decreased. And so the growth rate from 1970-1980 falls to 13.3%.
The Government of Singapore realized in 1986 that the fall of the birthrate causes serious problem for the future of the country. So they started the try to reverse their old policy. The new slogan of the new policy praised now the advantages of partner hood and marriage instead of Small-Families for a bright future. In 1988 the government started to give financial support for families with more than two children. For example for the third child the mother would earn 750 SDG and for the fourth 750 SDG and 15% of the mothers income. Furthermore the taxation for families with a third child would be decreased.
All this led to a slightly increase in the growth rate from 1980-1990 of 18.5%. But many parents weren’t unhappy because they got the feeling they getting children for the state and not because they want to.
Population of Singapore from 1961 to 2001
Population (in thousands)
Graph from Wikipedia
Success of the Two Child Policy
The two child policy was in achieving its aim, to decrease the birth rate, without any doubt successful. The growth of the population was decreased during ten years by 80%. But the methods how the Government of Singapore achieved this aim is to criticise and at some points it’s to convict. For example the legalisation of sterilisation is not really humanity. But the advice and advertising for women to get sterilised, is for me an absolutely offence against human rights. Furthermore I doubt the necessarily of the sterilisation. The offered financial advantages and bonuses for not having a third child are absolutely enough to convince parents. I also believe that Singapore’s child politic was too aggressive. The development in the growth rates agree with my thought.
Success of the “have three children or more” policy
In 1986 the Government realized their misjudgement and tried to reverse their old policy with moderate success. Their increased the growth of the population but not as high as they wanted to. In my opinion that’s the result of the too aggressive policy in the 1960s and 1970s. With less high rewards for not getting a third child the problem of the low birth rate would never exist. Instead of spending less in the past, the government spent high amounts to families for getting no third child and now they have to spend again high amount of money to fix their own misjudgement and mistakes.
For me the main mistakes of the Singapore Government was too much short view thinking. They wanted Singapore to be seen as soon as possible as a high developed country, with a low birth rate and a low mortality rate. This aim is achieved but they have no the problems of a too low birth rate and like all other countries with this problem they have no sensible solution to fix it.
