SOCIAL ACTION PLAN—FERTILITY RATE
The fertility rate dropped to 1.16 in Singapore last year, it was already at an alarming record low of 1.22 in 2009, well below the natural replacement level of 2.1 babies.
Despite measures to encourage marriage and procreation, Singapore’s TFR fell from 1.28 in 2008 to 1.22 in 2009 and 1.16 in 2010.
For the Chinese community, it was 1.02 in 2010, down from 1.14 in 2008 and 1.08 in 2009. For the Malay community, it was 1.65 last year, down from 1.91 in 2008 and 1.82 in 2009. The Indian community, too, has been facing declining fertility rates: 1.19 in 2008, 1.14 in 2009 and at 1.13 last year.
The average household size shrank from 3.7 people in 2000 to 3. 5 in 2010, and the proportion of households with less than 4 people rose from 44% to 51%. The shift towards smaller households was most prominent for Chinese households, of which 54% had less than four members in their household.
70% of the households had married couples in 2010, down from 74% ten years before. About 47% of married couples were both workers in 2010, up from 41% in 2000.
The population is aging, with 24% of resident households having elderly members aged 65 or above, compared with 21% in 2000. 4.6% of the households have only elderly members.
The average household size was dwindling as Singapore went through the process of industrialization and leapt to being a cosmopolitan society of the first world. This means that Singapore was not progressing fast, but progressing too fast where Singaporean citizens got left behind.
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Many Singaporean citizens could not keep up with the progress of leaping to a cosmopolitan society from industrialization, so they found it tough to raise more children than it was before. People found it very hard to have both a successful career and a good family. The demands of jobs have increased and people need higher skills to get a job before they start a family. Many claim that they get tired from the many hours of work and thus have not enough time to think about or make babies. Others say that to bring a child up in Singapore is not an easy job for both the parent and the child because of the high education standards and the expensive school fees.
To encourage and convince Singaporeans to make more babies to increase the fertility rate, the Government introduced Baby Bonus Schemes as a market-based economic incentive to try to modify the attitudes towards having children. Some of benefits are to get cash gifts, and the amount of the cash gifts increases as more children are produced per household and tax subsidies. The Government also increased the maternity leave from 2 to 4 years.
However, few Singaporeans were convinced to produce more babies. Therefore, the Government brought in more immigrants from overseas to help produce more babies to increase the fertility rate. Lee Kuan Yew mentioned that young immigrants are needed otherwise Singapore will rapidly age and shrink. As a result, many Singaporeans are unhappy about the influx of foreigners.
What is lacking? What is wrong? Probably, the main problem in this matter is because the Government have concentrated too much on the economic progress of Singapore. Singapore progressed in a very fast rate, but the needs of many of the people have not progressed. Thus, there is a big gap in the economic status and the needs of people. It makes it hard for the people to keep up with the economic progress and it makes the cost of living high for the people. Therefore, money is valuable and time is rare and appreciated by Singaporeans.
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The Government did put in baby bonuses and did increase it after sometime, but the Government did not give enough benefits. To Singaporeans the Government’s benefits may be too stingy, so I would suggest increasing the benefits by a lot more. The tax subsidies for the households are only for a few years, so it should be changed to permanent tax subsidies instead for long-term benefits because the current tax subsidies only lasts for a while. The cost of producing babies in Singapore is high so the Government should also put in more cash gifts because the small amounts given today cover little of the fees of producing children. Time is also a very important factor, so the maternity leave should be increased by 1-2 years and should be paid by the Government. The fathers of the child should also be given some leave to spend time with the child. These solutions are not impossible as the Government has much money to spare so more amount of money should be set aside for the baby bonuses.
Lastly, raising the fertility rate would take time and it can only stabilize to the natural replacement level of 2.1 after a long period of time so the Government should be more patient in increasing the fertility rate. Fertility rates are not increased overnight and the influx of immigrants to bring up the fertility rate at a faster rate is an efficient but not an accurate solution to address this local matter of concern. It would anger more Singaporean citizens and it would be harder to convince them in the future to produce more babies.
This is my social action plan which covers the problem of this local matter of concern, the current solutions, what is lacking and my plan to resolve the problem.
(Word count: 917 words)
