At Tufts, student organizations and university departments advocate birth control awareness and accessibility to help students prevent unplanned pregnancies. But imagine living in a place where having a child is considered a crime.
That, according to members of the new student group Tufts China Care, is the situation in parts of China, where the government's "one-child" policy, once purported as a temporary measure, is still enforced nearly three decades after its implementation.
The policy, instituted by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979, was developed to limit communist China's population explosion. It places restrictions on the number of children couples can have; couples who break the policy can be fined.
Recently, China reported that it will continue its one-child policy through the five-year planning period of 2006-2010, according to ChinaDaily.com.
For Tufts China Care, an offshoot of the national China Care organization that was officially recognized as a student organization in April, the mission is threefold: to raise awareness and funds for the China Care Foundation, to befriend adopted Chinese orphans in the area through mentoring programs and to volunteer in China during the summer months, according to co-president and Tufts sophomore Angela Lam.
Sophomore Lou H. Tanyu, the organization's PR manager, spoke about the effects of China's one-child policy on children with disabilities and orphans.
"China has a one-child policy, making the care of orphans in China a significant issue, especially for children with disabilities, who are more likely to become orphans through this policy," she said. "Disabled children are of no use to society since they are turned away from jobs and are not allowed to attend school."
The one-child policy is not a universal state dictum however; for the entirety of its enforcement the policy has been restricted to ethnic Han Chinese living in urban areas. Clay Dumas, a graduate student of Chinese at Harvard who has studied in Shanghai, explained the policy's varying roles in different parts of China.
"The policy exists mostly in cities, because it is hard to keep track of those citizens in the countryside," he said. "The rich, too, can often get away with having more than one child, because they're able to pay the fines."
Dumas said members of China's lower and middle classes who cannot pay the fines are pressured to abort the pregnancy but, in some cases, simply abandon their children after birth.
Another controversial aspect of the one-child policy is that it may have fostered a shift in the male-to-female ratio of China's population. Male infants are generally desired over females, because they can extend the family name and are required, by law, to provide for the family when they turn 18. As a result, females and disabled infants are often neglected or abandoned, a phenomenon Tufts China Care looks to combat.
"China Care remedies this by raising money for the surgeries for [disabled] babies so that they can live a normal life," Tanyu said. "[It] also facilitates the adoption process so that American families can adopt these children who may not be adopted in China."
A number of Tufts China Care members take part in active volunteer work in China. This past summer, six Tufts students - sophomores Amy Ni, Jenny Lau, David Mou, Addy Tang and Angela Lam, along with junior Chen Li - traveled to Beijing for three weeks and volunteered in a China Care children's home, providing both living supplies and care for the orphans.
While China Care's goals involve helping the mentally disabled children in China, the group's influence has spread to local regions, primarily the Boston area.
"We're a national nonprofit organization that helps children through the adoption process," Lam said, describing the organization's mentoring program, "The Dumplings."
"The mentoring Dumplings program pairs up a Tufts student with an adopted Chinese child," she said.
Education also holds a place on the agenda of Tufts China Care. Throughout the coming school year, the organization will host guest speakers, including professors, to explain China's one-child policy and orphanage system.
The group also plans to carry out the organization's mission to raise money for its international goals.
"One of Tufts China Care's goals is to raise money for the China Care foundation. The funds raised through various events will help support China Care Children's Homes in four cities of China and will help meet the cost of surgeries and medical care for orphaned Chinese children with disabilities," Tanyu said.
The group's biggest fundraising event will be its spring benefit dinner, where an estimated 100 guests will enjoy food and entertainment and have an opportunity to make donations to the organization.
"We are hoping to receive generous donations from the guests and anyone else who wishes to support the China Care foundation," Tanyu said.
