A village known for extra births
Zhu, H.
China Population Today 15(3): 10
1998
PMID: 12293905 Document Number: 275332
This article identifies Baimiao village in Baimiao Town, Linquan County, Anhui Province, China, as a administrative unit without a strong family planning program and with extra births. Baimiao village is comprised of 5 sub-villages and 2471 persons, of whom 414 are women of childbearing age. During 1992-97 there were 321 newborns, of which 124 were 1st-parity births and 137 were 2nd-parity births. 47 were unplanned 3rd-parity births, 9 were 4th-parity births, 3 were 5th-parity births, and 1 was a 6th-parity birth. About 50% of the newborns were unplanned pregnancies. After the only village family planning worker left, the village did not have a replacement, and data recording became inaccurate. People concealed births and underreported unplanned births. Higher fertility was encouraged by the poor example set by Party members and cadres in the village who had out-of-quota births. Among the 39 Party members and cadres in the village, 23 had unplanned births and some had third parity births. After the mass media exposed the extra births occurring in the village among Party members and the community, penalties and discipline were given to Party members and cadres. Penalties included loss of their jobs or banishment from the Communist party.