Family Planning Policy After Great Leap Forward(1962-1966)

People’s Republic of China family planning policy research from the late fifties until the mid seventies is very rare, while many academics mention family planning policies, the actually policies have yet to be analyzed completely. Moreover, previous research into 1960’s family planning policy was largely done on macro perspective level and only in regards to the central government; these same scholars have praised the central party in their family planning and population control policies. The family planning movement in the sixties as well as during and after the great leap forward are all closely related to the great famine, but because of lack of research, the exact ins and outs of the family planning policies directly after the great famine remain unclear for example the specific implementation measures, but as well as the lack of thinking on the movement itself. This research paper uses unexplored archives, to examine the questions mentioned above.After the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, a more stable social environment allowed for rapid population growth, rising populations made food production and other resources more necessary but also in short supply. Thus, the Government began in the early fifties to realize that the idea that rapid population growth must be controlled; the government began to publicize some of basic methods of contraception in order to slow birth rates. In 1957, after a planned economic system of the government had been completed, CPC leadership began to consciously view the economic development of its population as a control variable, and in 1957 formally proposed family planning program. The pilot program was first established in only a few areas. But as the 1958 Great Leap Forward began, the country was so filled with workers rhetoric, and its need for greater production the family planning project was canceled. After failure of the Great Leap Forward and the tragic deaths of millions from the Great Famine, the Government once again saw the need to control its country’s population. The shortages of food coupled with the rising population were the two big problems for which the CPC leadership had to deal. So in 1962, the CPC leadership began control the population through family planning as to reduce population as well as restart the agricultural framework of China. From 1962 the government restarted its family planning policies, it has lasted for four years and ended with the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution.1962-1966 family planning policies core objective was to act as quickly as possible to address population growth and insufficient food supply problem, as to maintain stability of the regime. Therefore, the core goal of family planning work of this period was the pursuit of speed and volume. In order to reduce the direct and rapid population growth, abortion, sterilization, as well as the surgical placement of birth control rings and other surgical sterilization became the norm in Family Planning. However, at the time, neither the medical staff or medical devices were adequate for such a large-scale family planning operation, to counter act this problem, the local governments were to reduce medical standards, thus making large-scale expansion of their medical team easier but also negatively effected the quality of medical care and eventually lead to medical malpractice and other problems.The nature of family planning from 1962 to 1966 is a mid-economic pressures and slue of domestic problems, that being said it brought about a huge contradiction between population and resources.In this sense, the birth rate was purely seen as just an economic datum, which needed to be quickly reduced. Just as a statistic can be subtracted from a data set, so was the population. From each layer of society, from the administrative bureaucracy it eventually reached every family, gradually reducing to a physiology level in the form of contraception, birth control and abortion. Each couple that were affected by family planning policies of that era, are among one of the many failures caused by the irresponsible policies of the Great Leap Forward.