population planning in singapore population planning in singapore population planning in singapore spans two distinct phases: first to slow and reverse the boom in births that started after world war ii; and second, from the 1980s onwards, to encourage parents to have more children because birth numbers had fallen below replacement levels. in the 1960s the singapore government encouraged women, especially uneducated women, to get sterilised following their second child. the first phase started with the launch of the singapore family planning and population board in 1966 to aggressively promote family planning after singapore faced "post-war food and housing shortages". sfppb targeted low-socioeconomic status individuals, particularly females, and worked to encourage contraceptive use, such as condoms and birth control. the sfppb advocated for small families, establishing the "stop-at-two" program, which pushed for small two-children families and promoted sterilisation in order to have population control. sfppb also opened more clinics to better the health and welfare of families. the government program "stop-at-two" was very successful. the program could even be considered too successful. the policy that encouraged couples to have no more than two children started to cause a population decline and impact the population structure of singapore in a negative manner. the government has made attempts to reverse the falling birth rates, initiating phase two. phase two has been very unsuccessful. a lot of policies set in place by the government during phase one made phase two difficult to take place. in phase one, civil workers were not paid for maternity leave after their second child, hospital fees were higher after the second child, top school choices were given to only children with parents who had been sterilized before the age of 40, which was rewarded with seven days of paid leave. during phase two, several of these policies were still taking place and individuals remained having one child, or no children. the government eventually became pro-natalist, and officially announced its replacement "have-three-or-more (if you can afford it)" in 1987, in which the government continued its efforts to better the quality and quantity of the population while discouraging low-income families from having children. the social development unit (sdu) was also established in 1984 to promote marriage and romance between educated individuals. phase 1: to slow and reverse post war world war ii in singapore ended in 1945, and the years following caused the population to increase faster than the economy was developing. there were about 1 million baby boomers born between the years of 1947 and 1964, live births increasing 58%. with the rapid increase of singapore after the war, the country soon faced the effects of overpopulation, which could be the depletion of natural resources, degradation of environment, a rise in unemployment, and a higher cost of living. from 1947 to 1957, the social forces which caused the post–world war ii baby boom elsewhere in the world also occurred in singapore. the birth rate rose and the death rate fell; the average annual growth rate was 4.4%, of which 1% was due to immigration; singapore experienced its highest birth rate in 1957 at 42.7 per thousand individuals. this also happened to be the same year the united states saw its peak birth rate. upon singapore experiencing many of the effects of overpopulation, and in fear of experiencing more, the singapore government decided to step in. family planning family planning was introduced to singapore in 1949 by a group of volunteers led by constance goh that eventually became the family planning association of singapore and established numerous sexual health clinics offering contraception, treatments for minor gynaecological ailments, and marital advice. until the 1960s there was no official government policy in these matters, but the postwar british colonial administration, followed by the singaporean government, played an increasingly important role by providing ever larger grants to the association, as well as land for its facilities network, culminating in 1960 with a three-month nationwide family planning campaign that was jointly conducted by the association and government. the population growth rate slowed from 4–5% per year in the 1950s to around 2.5% in 1965 around independence. the birth rate had fallen to 29.5 per thousand individuals, and the natural growth rate had fallen to 2.5%. singapore's population expansion can be seen in the graph below: population growth 1947–2000 periodgrowth 1947–195784.7% 1957–197090.8% 1970–198013.3% 1980–199018.5% 1990–200020.6% 2000–201040.9% overcrowding concerns at the time of independence, many singaporeans gynecological in the central area in overcrowded shophouses; and the bulk of the work of the housing development board had not yet been completed. in 1947, the british housing committee report noted singapore had "one of the world's worst slums – 'a disgrace to a civilised community'", and the average person per building density was 18.2 by 1947 (high-rise buildings had yet to be constructed en masse); about 550,000 people lived in squalid squatter settlements or "ramshackle shophouses" by 1966. rapid population growth was perceived as a threat to "political stability and living standards" that led to population overcrowding that would overwhelm employment opportunities and social services in education, health and sanitation. despite their fall since 1957, birth rates in the 1960s were still perceived as high. on average, a baby was born every 11 minutes in 1965; kandang kerbau hospital (kkh) – a women's hospital where most babies in singapore were delivered – saw over 100 deliveries per day in 1962. in 1966, kkh delivered 39,835 babies, earning it a place in the guinness book of world records for "largest number of births in a single maternity facility" each year for ten years. because there was generally a massive shortage of beds in that era, mothers with routine deliveries were discharged from hospitals within 24 hours. establishment of the fppb in 1959, the people's action party came to power, and in september 1965 the minister of health, yong nyuk lin, submitted a white paper to parliament, recommending a five-year mass family planning programme that would reduce the birth rate to 20.0 per thousand individuals by 1970. this was to become the national family programme; in 1966, the singapore family planning and population board (sfppb) had been established based on the findings of the white paper, providing clinical services and public education on family planning. initially allocated a budget of $1 million sgd for the entire programme, the sfppb faced a resistant population, but eventually serviced over 156,000. the family planning association was absorbed into the activities of the sfppb. lee kuan yew as first prime minister of singapore held wide sway over the government's social policies before 1990. lee kuan yew was recorded in 1967 as believing that "five percent" of a society's population, "who are more than ordinarily endowed physically and mentally," should be allocated the best of a country's limited resources to provide "a catalyst" for that society's progress. such a policy for singapore would "ensure that singapore shall maintain its pre-eminent place" in southeast asia. similar views shaped education policy and meritocracy in singapore. stop-at-two in the late 1960s, singapore was a developing nation and had not yet undergone the demographic transition; though birth rates fell from 1957 to 1970, in 1970, birth rates rose as women who were themselves the product of the postwar baby boom reached maturity. fearing that singapore's growing population might overburden the developing economy, lee started a vigorous stop at two family planning campaign. abortion and sterilisation were legalised in 1970, and women were urged to get sterilised after their second child. the government also added a gradually increasing array of incentives and disincentives between 1968 and 1973, penalising parents for having more than two children, raising the per-child costs of each additional child: in 1968 with the employment bill, female employees would not receive maternity leave for their fourth child or any subsequent children; in april 1969, the accouchement fee of $10 charged at government maternity hospitals was raised to $50 after the 3rd baby; in 1972, these measures were introduced: the incentives: waiver of delivery charges in government maternity hospitals for women who undergo sterilisation after delivery. for ward c-class patients who have undergone sterilisation, the ward charges are remitted. government delivery charges are also waived if the husband undergoes sterilisation within a month after the wife delivered child. patients undergoing sterilisation are granted medical leave on generous terms. the disincentives: delivery charges in government hospitals increase with each additional child. no paid maternity leave is given for delivery of the fourth child and subsequent children. no priority is given to large families in the allocation of housing and development board flats. updates to these earlier measures were announced and debated in singapore parliament on 24 october 1972 and came into effect on 1 august 1973: reduction of income tax relief to cover only the first three children; reduction of paid maternity leave from three to two confinements; lowering the priority for allocation of housing and development board (hdb) flats for bigger families. two or less have highest priority, four or more would have little priority; progressive increment of childbirth fees charged in government hospitals based on birth order. these fees are waived if the man or woman underwent sterilisation; accouchement fees a ward b ward c ward 1st child 250 100 50 2nd child 300 150 75 3rd child 350 150 100 4th child 400 250 200 5th child 400 300 third or fourth children were given lower priorities in education; top priority in top-tier primary schools would be given only to children whose parents had been sterilised before the age of forty. the singapore family planning and population board created a large array of public education material for the stop-at-two campaign, in one of the early examples of the public social engineering campaigns the government would continue to implement (speak mandarin, speak good english, national courtesy, keep singapore clean and toilet flushing campaigns) that would lead to its reputation as "paternalistic" and "interventionist" in social affairs. the "stop at two" media campaign from 1970 to 1976 was led by basskaran nair, press section head of the ministry of culture, and created posters with lasting legacy: a 2008 straits times article wrote, "many middle-aged singaporeans will remember the poster of two cute girls sharing an umbrella and an apple: the umbrella fit two nicely. three would have been a crowd." this same poster was also referred to in prime minister lee hsien loong's 2008 national day rally speech. many other posters from the "iconic" campaign included similar themes of being content with two girls, to combat the common trend in developing asian societies for families with only daughters to continue "trying for a boy". in addition to promoting just having two children, the government encouraged individuals to delay having their second child and to marry late, reinforcing the inevitable demographic transition. other slogans and campaign material exhorted singaporeans with such messages as: "small families – brighter future: two is enough" (this message captioned a photo of two young girls) "the second can wait" (a mother and father are seen as being happy with one child) "teenage marriage means rushing into problems: a happy marriage is worth waiting for" "one, two: and that's ideal: sterilisation, the best method for family limitation" (shown with a cartoon of two girls' faces) "take your time to say 'yes'" small family: brighter future "please stop at two!" (a stork carries a four-member nuclear family) the straits times interviewed mothers who were sterilised in that era, noting it was common to get sterilised at a young age, citing a woman who had undergone tubal ligation at kkh at the age of 23, herself coming from a large family of ten. "the pressure was high. the government clearly didn't want us to have more than two." a gynaecologist doctor who worked kkh recalled sterilisation rates became "sky high" after the disincentives had been implemented; it was common for hospital workers to chide women who were pregnant with third-order or higher births, recommending abortions, while such women talked about their pregnancy " they committed a crime". the straits times also suggested the disincentives had been very effective; one woman cited how sterilisation certification had to be shown to a school for a third child to receive priority, while she and four out of five sisters eventually underwent sterilisation. expensive delivery fees ("accouchement fees") for