SINGAPORE: Since the government launched the Baby
Bonus scheme in 2001, it has disbursed more than S$2.3 billion in
benefits. This includes a cash gift and the Child Development
Account -- a scheme where the government matches savings for
children, dollar-for-dollar.
The Chinese consider the year of the Dragon, an
auspicious year to have children. Noticeably, there were more
births in Singapore between January and November 2012, compared to
the same period in 2011. 38,914 babies were born in the first 11
months of 2012, and it looks like the numbers will exceed the
preceding year.
Still, Singapore's total fertility rate (TFR)
remains at a low 1.2, well below the replacement rate of 2.1.
Various measures have been introduced in an attempt to raise the
TFR -- like cash gifts under the Baby Bonus scheme, which have been
given to over 310,000 children since it was introduced in
2001.
More than 240,000 children have also opened the Child Development
Account -- a savings account for children up to 12 years of age,
which enjoys dollar-for-dollar matching from the government. The
money can be used to pay for childcare centre fees, early
intervention programmes or medical-related expenses, among other
things.
The government is expected to announce enhancements to the Baby
Bonus under its marriage and parenthood package.
However, family experts Channel NewsAsia spoke with said money is
not everything.
Associate Professor Paulin Straughan, a sociologist with the
National University of Singapore, said: "From the population
demographic statistics, we can see where the adjustments have come
-- delayed marriage, smaller family sizes.
"Moving forward, the question is then are we happy with this -- to
allow individuals to continue to make adjustments to the
constraints in our living environment? Can the nation sustain with
these kind of population trajectories or is it time for us then to
re-look the environmental constraints? To see if we can adjust
those so that individuals don't have to tilt their balance too
much."
Environmental constraints include long working hours, a competitive
education system, the availability of accessible childcare and
Singaporeans' expectations in general.
The government is already addressing some of these issues -- for
example, putting less stress on the education system. There are
also plans to make it easier for young families to set up their
first home.
James Chan, a father of one, said: "I believe because of lifestyle,
because of the rising cost -- cost is rising in Singapore, so
everybody thinks it's not easy to set up a family. Time, childcare
centres not being easily available at certain places.
Iqbal Zainal, a 25-year-old operations executive, said: "For us, we
are in the mid-20s, we still want to do what we want after
education, like travel and stuff. Even if couples get married, they
want to stay together and travel and do what they want to do
together without a child. Just make having kids cool or something.
For now, having it in the early 20s is not cool."
It is the mindset change that experts said is hard to
overcome.
Professor Gavin Jones, director at the JY Pillay Comparative Asia
Research Centre, said: "This is a country that succeeded by its own
hard work -- no natural resources, it has developed its own human
resources. We've got to be able to compete in the world and all
these feeds in towards the attitude to education of children, the
children has to succeed.
"Maybe the whole mystique has to be slightly changed, to give a
little bit less precedence to economic growth. There are trade-offs
and slower economic growth is dangerous for a country like
Singapore in some ways, but rapid economic growth is going to lead
to significant population decline and that is also not something
that's desirable."
The government has set a target of raising the total fertility rate
from 1.2 to 1.4 or 1.5 -- a target which experts said is quite
possible with the right mix of policies. But that is still way
below the replacement rate of 2.1. Given that reality, experts said
the only way to make up for the shortfall is through
immigration.
-CNA/ac
