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BEIJING, January 30 (TMTPOST) — Health authorities in southwestern China’s Sichuan province will allow the unmarried to register their children with the government, which comes as the nation’s latest effort to boost the birth rate and slow down the population decline.

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Any individuals who wish to raise a family will be able to enjoy maternal and child health services from February 15, with their basic information, such as household registration, residence and marriage records, of the parents and children registered, according to the Measures for the Administration of Birth Registration Services in Sichuan Province that was released on the website of provincial heath authorities on January 12.

The announcement went viral on Chinese social media platforms. “To put it in other words — you can have babies without getting married, as long as you want to,” a netizen commented on Weibo, the Chinese Twitter.

Others questioned if the policy could boost the birth rate. “Who dares to give birth to a baby? It will be your Achilles" heel,” another nitizen said.

However, the new provincial policy has nothing to do with registering a child’s permanent residence, or Hukou, by the household registration department, an official from the Health Commission of Sichuan Province clarified. “The mentioned birth registration is just about managing the birth population,” the official said.

The commission also lifted the curb on the number of children that can be registered. Other changes included simplifying the registration procedure and emphasizing on the information share.

“Improving the birth registration system is an inherent requirement for the implementation of the three-child policy and supporting measures. It is an important measure to improve the national birth registration management system and a population monitoring system covering the entire population and the entire birth cycle. It is also fundamental for strengthening the construction of the population service system and improving the management of primary-level services,” the health commission said in a statement.

According to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the number of newborns in 2022 dropped to 9.56 million, the lowest since 1949 and the first time that the figure fell below 10 million.

In July 2021, the national government released the Decision of the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council on Improving Birth Policies to Promote Long-term Balanced Population Growth, which for the first time allowed three kids for a married couple from the 1980s.