By Xinhua
Beijing : The Chinese government has selectively liberalised its one-child policy and allowed urban families to have two children under certain conditions.
A spokesman of family planning commission confirmed that in all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, except for Henan Province, married couples, both of whom are the only children of their parents, could raise two children.
"Those couples can choose to have one child or two or no child at all," Yu Xuejun of China's National Population and Family Planning Commission said in an interview with the central government website Tuesday.
China's national family planning policy, implemented in 1979, allows rural families to raise two children but only one child for those in urban areas.
The policy had allowed China to rein in population growth, delaying by four years the 1.3 billion figure the country reached at the beginning of 2005.
But Henan Province, with a population of more than 97 million, has persisted with the original policy.
Yu said media reports of a single-child policy across the country were mistaken, saying that different practices prevailed in different regions.
"China's rural regions have comparatively less public resources than cities and many farmers rely on their children to provide for them in their old age," Yu said, "that is why we allow farmers to raise more children."
China faces a range of social problems partly caused by its huge population – employment pressures, housing and resource shortages, to name just a few. And its 1.3 billion population is unevenly distributed in the 31 provinces, regions and municipalities.
A family planning policy can only reduce the number of births, it can't solve all these problems, Yu said.