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Early Social Challenges & Responses:

Population Boom


Challenge: Post-war Baby Boom

• 1950s – 1960s: peace, prosperity, increased confidence

• Average family: 6 to 7 children• Population grew rapidly

– 1950: 1.02 million – 1960: 1.64 million – 1970: 2 million

• Would reach 5 million by year 2000!


Challenge: Singapore’s constraints

Q: Why was the population boom a challenge for Singapore in the early independence years?

Analysis:


Challenge: Singapore’s constraints

‘The number of deliveries in KK was at its peak, with an average of 100 deliveries per day. The number of beds available then fell far short of demand, and many deliveries were conducted with patients lying on the floor on mackintoshes or on transport trolleys. Patients in the early stages of labour sat for long hours on hard wooden benches waiting for a bed.’

An oral account by a Nursing Officer in 1962

Total live births in 2011 39,630????Source: Dept of Statistics, Singapore.


Government’s Response

• Minister for Health, Yong Nyuk Lin, tabled a White Paper in Parliament in 1965.

•Outlined a 5-year Mass Family Planning programme

•Aimed at reducing birth rate from 29.9 per thousand in 1965 to 20 per thousand in 1970.

•Family Planning and Population Board (FPPB) set up to implement recommendations.


Responses

• 3 five-year plans implemented

• Provision of family planning services •Extensive publicity for family planning

•Incentives for small families, disincentives for larger families


3 Five-Year Plans implementedSpearheaded by the Singapore Family and Population Board


Provision of Family Planning Services

• Easily accessible family planning clinics were set up to provide family planning advice and services

•Different types of contraceptives were sold at nominal prices

• Abortion and sterilization were also legalized in 1970

• Carried out at a nominal fee in government hospitals.


Provision of Family Planning Services

• Aimed to provide family planning facilities to all eligible married women in the 15-44 years age group around 180 000

•Although programme met with initial resistance, more than 156 000 eventually received family planning services

• The easily available and accessible family planning services and officers reached out to more people and helped the government to reduce population growth.


Extensive Publicity for family planning

• Radio, television, newspapers, magazines, posters and pamphlets.

As many people could afford radios, television sets, magazines and newspapers, the messages and importance of family planning were spread to many Singaporeans.


Incentives & Disincentives

• These incentives and disincentives provided substantial reason and sense for families to exercise family planning and have lesser children, thus reducing population growth.


DEBATE

The government can and should affect personal decisions, like family planning, for the progress of the country.


References / Additional Resources

National Archives of Singapore. 10 Years That Shaped A Nation, 1965 – 1979. Singapore: 1998, National Archives.

Lim, Irene. Singapore’s first family planning campaign. http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1651_2010-02-26.html

Population Control Policies. http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-11807.html

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