88.9% want longer maternity leave for second children: survey

A survey by China Youth Daily has revealed some of the main reasons people are reluctant to have second children.

Covering 2,966 participants, the survey came two weeks after China's government announced that it will allow all couples to have two children, abandoning its decades-long one-child policy.

As many as 88.9 percept of respondents hope that paid maternity leave should be prolonged for second children, with 40.7 percent hoping it should be extended to six months, 26 percent to one year, and 6.6 percent to three years.

A mother of a six-year-old child said women should be given longer maternity leave, as much more time is needed to take care of two children.

Usually, a female employee can take a 98-day paid maternity leave, which may be extended by 15 days under special circumstances. In addition, a woman who gives birth to her first child at age 24 or older is regarded as a case of "late childbirth," and entitled to an additional "late maternity leave" of roughly 30 days.

Li Jianmin, head of the Population and Development Studies Institute at Nankai University, said China's maternity leave is not short compared to other countries, but he suggested longer child-care leave, following the examples of northern Europe and South Korea.

As for other concerns, 73.2 percent of respondents supported the exemption of personal income taxes for second-child parents, and 71.8 percent proposed that kindergartens should be included in the nine-year compulsory education system.

Women of advanced maternal age should also be given more attention, 74.2 percent of respondents said.