Society - MAHAMAG Magazine beyond boundaries

Thailand : Family Planning to increase child birth

Thailand, the world’s 20th largest developing economy is on the edges of a meltdown as the fertility rate in the country is alarmingly declining over the last few decades in a row. During the sixties, the fertility rate of 6.5 children per woman was considered big and more dangerous and the Thai government introduced National Family Planning Program (NFPP), which now is, one of the reasons for the alarmingly dangerous fertility rate of 1.40 children per in 2013 (As per the data available in 2017), as it is considered as a lower fertility rate to maintain current population levels in the long term.

It all started back in the sixties when Thai families were struggling with five to six children which was a slightly above the average of the fertility rates of the other developing third world Asian countries, which was the prime reason behind the introduction of National Family Planning Program (NFPP) . It played a pivotal role in providing hundreds and thousands of people with access of contraceptives. The wide spread awareness of reducing the

number of children for a better tomorrow resulted a vast decline in the fertility rate and infant mortality rate all over the country. Today two thirds of the married couple in the Thai community uses contraceptives.

It was even a surprise for the Thai government, that the National Family Planning Program (NFPP) affected the Thai community in such a way that the religious or cultural norms of the community received this program with open arms. Unlike other countries, the fertility rates has fallen among the rural, low-income and uneducated population, when they expected the contrary as unlike other third world developing nations, majority of the Buddhist and Muslim population of the country was living in rural areas where social, religious and cultural protests were expected over the NFPP program.

The modern Thai women give more emphasis on education and job rather than raising a family. A 2013 survey from the National Statistic Office found 21% of Thai females aged over 15 remain single. Even the married couples are not much into having a

child as they think of it is highly inconvenient for the parents as they are more interested in their career. With more and more youngsters leaving the rural areas to urban areas to find their dream career and independent and somehow self-centered life style, the concept of family is never crossing their minds even after getting the success they aspires.

The same thing is reflected in the whole community as well. The idea of children friendly neighborhood almost disappeared from the community. The condominiums will be provided with five to six floors of parking spaces, but no play area for the children. No wonder the community is famous for indoor sports in international level such as weight lifting and boxing.

The proportion of seniors in its population is swelling. By 2030 one in four citizens will be 60 or above .Shrinking labor pools and aging population is a cause of worry to the Thai government as a developing nation cannot afford the aged work force to keep the momentum going for the various industries which keeps the country on top of the many developmental charts.

While the whole world admires the National Family Planning Program (NFPP) for their success in declining the fertility rate from more than a million births a year to 760,000 as of 2010, projected to fall below 700,000 within two decades the Government now realizes that it forgot to pay attention to the long term effects it caused on the society. Now that the National Family Planning Program (NFPP) achieved more than the desired results, Thai government now realized the disadvantages of its “over achievement” and is busy, working on the corrective measures to balance the fertility rate by organizing and executing many programs beneficial for the couples. The country is now threatened by the fact that within next two decades the youngsters will be outnumbered by the older people and the birthrate will fell behind the mortality rate,

just like Japan.

The Thai government is now busy in endorsing for the improvement in fertility rate and as a plan of action, now the Finance Ministry proposed tax adjustments to encourage parents to have babies. The Revenue Department plans to increase the tax allowance for children starting in 2017 as a way of offsetting current demographic shifts, as the government think it is never too late to change the strategies. Also the Revenue department is thinking on changing the current tax structure which offers the tax allowance of Bt15,000 (S$597.41) to Bt17,000 a year for children to Bt30,000.Another measure being considered is extending the tax allowance to cover any number of children. Currently the maximum allowance is for three children.

Thai Government believes these tax reforms may encourage the families to have more children, but it's unrealistic given that the average family had just 1.4 per offspring in 2013.As per the current scenario, we have to go back 40 or 50 years to find Thai families averaging six children. This concept is highly unlikely to have an impact soon. Few more decades worth waiting may change the scenario if the Thai government can do the magic as they did with the National Family Planning Program. Resitha V S