People were confident of a better tomorrow and decided to have
larger families. Average family had 6 to 7 children. Singapore's
population grew by more than half a million.
Problems arising from
population growth
Unemployment
Shortage of housing
Insufficient healthcare services
Insufficient Education
More
people,more
competition
for jobs
1966 to 1981; 3 five year plans
implemented to control
population growth.
Examples
Stop at Two Policy: No paid maternity leave to be
given to the third and subsequent children; No
priority to be given to large families in the
allocation of government flats ; No income tax
reliefs to be given for the fourth and subsequent
children; Delivery charges in hospitals increased
with each additional child
Abortion legalised
Contraception encouraged
1980s to now
Declining birth rate. People
marrying at a later age and
increasing costs of living
Problems of underpopulation
Unattractive to multinational companies; not enough
talented people to sustain its development.
Transnational corporations find it difficult and
expensive to recruit Singaporeans compared to huge
labour in countries such as China. Singapore would also
be less attractive because of its smaller consumer
market.
Ageing population; Fewer young people in the
population. Number of old people will be
proportionally larger .More resources will
have to be used to take care of the increasing
number of senior citizens
Defence: Fewer men to recruit for
National Service. Weaken Singapore's
defence force
Policies to promote population growth
Graduate Mothers Scheme; PM Lee Kuan Yew felt that
female graduates should have more children so that there
will be a higher chance of the new generation workforce
being more educated ; However, this sparked off debate
and unhappiness among the people. Less educated were
unhappy as they felt they would be neglected under the
policy
Three or More if you can Afford It: Parents
encouraged to have three or more children, if they
could afford it. Government wanted a cautious
approach to this due to the recession Singapore
experienced in 1985. Serious social problems may
arise if too many babies were born
Government allowed the use of Medisave to pay for delivery
charges of the first three children. This is to help relieve the
financial burden of having children
Attracted foreign talent, making Singapore more
cosmopolitan