According to the China Statistical Yearbook 2021 released by the National Bureau of statistics, China's birth rate will be 8.52 ‰ in 2020, falling below 10 ‰ for the first time, and the natural growth rate will be 1.45 ‰, a record low since 1978. How to treat the low fertility level of China's current population? How to improve the reproductive willingness of young people of childbearing age? On social concerns, the reporter interviewed Wang Peian, deputy director of the population, resources and Environment Committee of the CPPCC National Committee and Secretary of the Party group and executive vice president of the China Family Planning Association. Extending parental leave is only one of the measures to encourage childbirth In July 2021, the decision of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on optimizing Fertility Policies and promoting long-term balanced population development was issued, and China's population and family planning law was revised again. "Soon, all localities successively revised local population and family planning regulations and studied and issued policies conducive to reducing the burden of family childbirth and upbringing." Wang Peian explained that this led to the recent implementation of the policy of extending parental leave and maternity leave in many provinces. It is understood that Beijing, Shanghai, Hubei and other real estate leave and maternity leave have reached 158 days, Jiangxi, Qinghai and other places have reached 188 days, and Hebei, Shaanxi and other places have specially extended the maternity leave for three children. "These measures are of positive significance for promoting work family balance and creating a fertility friendly social environment." Wang Peian pointed out that when formulating the maternity leave incentive policy, we should further improve policies and measures such as maternity insurance, establish a reasonable sharing mechanism among individuals, enterprises and the government, emphasize the principle of parents sharing holidays and responsibilities, improve women's labor participation rate and reduce the risk of women's career interruption due to childbirth. However, Wang Peian frankly said that building a policy system for maternity support is a systematic project. Improving and implementing the maternity leave system is only one of them. To solve the problem of "people wanting to have children but not daring to have children", we should start from many aspects. Changing the unbalanced family division of labor may alleviate gender discrimination in the workplace After the introduction of the three child policy, many women worry that it will exacerbate gender discrimination in the workplace. In this regard, Wang Peian pointed out that women bear more responsibilities and spend more energy in the process of childbirth and upbringing, resulting in employers' preference for men, which has affected women's employment, income level and promotion. Wang Peian admitted that unattended children and the contradiction between women's career development and raising children are important factors leading to the decline of fertility rate, which seriously restricts the actual fertility behavior of families. The national fertility sample survey shows that among the reasons why they are unwilling to have two children, 61% of the mothers of one child are "no one looks after their children" and 28% of the mothers of one child are worried about "affecting their work and career development". "This phenomenon is very common not only in China, but also in all countries in the world. Therefore, the adjustment of fertility policy may objectively aggravate women's gender discrimination in the workplace." Wang Peian pointed out that to solve this problem, we must start from the source, establish and improve a family friendly policy system, and change the unbalanced family division of labor. Emphasize the father's responsibility in family affairs and promote gender equality within the family; In the "parental leave", the quota for the father's leave is mandatory, so as to effectively increase the proportion of men taking parental leave and reduce the burden of women's childcare; Learn from foreign mature experience and provide paid and unpaid parental leave, family allowance, tax relief and other systems for professional women. In Wang Peian's view, the central policy has made it clear that fertility friendliness should be regarded as an important aspect of employers' social responsibility. Then, it is hopeful to reduce gender discrimination in the labor market through policy guidance. Promote the integration of reproductive support into all economic and social policies The birth policy includes "birth" and "education". In Wang Peian's view, China has paid more attention to the policy of "health" for a long time and paid insufficient attention to the policy of "education". In the face of the problem that the masses generally reflect that they are "unwilling to have children and dare not have children", Wang Peian said: "today, the focus of optimizing fertility policy is not quantitative obstacles, but the construction of a new fertility culture." At the same time, due to the rapid economic development and the continuous improvement of living standards, families have higher and higher requirements for the quality of raising children. Time and economic investment are very large, and family childcare has become a heavy burden. Data show that in OECD countries, the proportion of children under the age of 3 receiving formal childcare services is 34%, and the enrollment rate of children under the age of 3 in China is only about 5.5%. The problem of nursery education has become the main obstacle for the masses to "want to live but dare not live". In April 2019, the general office of the State Council issued the guiding opinions on promoting the development of care services for infants and young children under the age of 3 (GBF [2019] No. 15). "To solve the problem of childcare, governments at all levels need to take the lead, further improve the policy system and create favorable conditions for the development of family care and institutional care." Wang Peian pointed out. So, what are the main policies of social concern? Wang Peian believes that first of all, we should take the childcare service system as an important part of the construction of the basic public service system as soon as possible, and provide urban and rural residents with quality guaranteed, affordable and accessible childcare services. At the same time, we should create a fertility friendly social environment, introduce relevant subsidies and preferential tax policies for families around reducing the cost of fertility and parenting education, explore the establishment of a parenting subsidy system, and reduce the economic pressure of family parenting. He also specifically suggested that in areas with loose preschool education resources, encourage "integration of childcare and kindergarten", promote qualified kindergartens to set up nursery classes, and integrate the childcare services for children aged 2 to 3 into the inclusive preschool education service system dominated by public institutions. In addition, raising infants under 3 years old can be included in the special additional deduction scope of individual income tax, so as to reduce the economic pressure of family parenting. "To solve the problem of childcare, we also need to give full play to the important role of mass organizations such as trade unions, the Communist Youth League, women's federations and family planning associations, as well as relevant social organizations and urban and rural community organizations, build a fertility friendly social environment, encourage men to participate in child care, protect women's employment rights and interests, and create an atmosphere of caring for infants and young children." Wang Peian said. (outlook new era)