Tuesday November 21, 11:26 AM
TV soap operas to help boost SKorea's birthrate
Writers of television soap operas are being enlisted to help South
Korea promote family life in an attempt to reverse its declining
birthrate.
Thirty scriptwriters for TV soaps and entertainment programmes are
taking part in a two-day workshop organised by the state-run
Planned Population Federation of Korea and the Radio Writers
Association, Tuesday's Korea Times reported.
The event aims to increase positive portrayals of marriage and
birth in the mass media and especially in TV dramas.
"More and more dramas portray birth and families with many children
negatively while making the lives of single career women seem
cooler and wiser," researcher Choi Eun-Sil was quoted as
saying.
"Also, as opposed to the old dramas that depicted marriage as the
ultimate goal of love, recent dramas communicate that marriage is
not a must."
South Korea's fertility rate, the average number of children born
to a fertile woman, fell to a record low of 1.08 in 2005 as more
working women postpone marriage.
The welfare ministry has forecast that the current population of 48
million will fall to 40 million in 2050.
Analysts have warned the low birthrate would cause a drop in the
workforce, create an ageing society and impose a greater burden on
the country's already troubled pension system.
In a report released Tuesday, the National Statistical Office said
the population will start to decrease from 2020 after peaking at
49.34 million in 2018. The figure is currently 48.12 million.
People aged over 60 will account for more than 14 percent of the
total by 2018, it said.
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Maybe gahmen can consider this, instead of calling us DINKS and say
his children are not DINKS, or give out baby bonus which we dunno
whether it's enough for milk powder or pampers.