Response:

The low fertility rate faced by Singapore carries with it dangerous repercussions.

If 1/4 women do not have children, theoretically Singapore's population will be reduced to three quarters of its size, and along with it its economy, military capability, industries, manpower and so on. Such would be disastrous for Singapore, which already has only one resource: its people. Should we not address this issue, our country faces being deprived of its only resource to survive.

And even this bleak scenario assumes that the remaining 3/4 of females follow the 2.1 replacement rate.

Of course, one must not be insensitive and ignore the other side of the story. While women with higher education levels do not want to sacrifice their careers for motherhood, less educated women do not have adequate finances to support large families.

In addition, be it highly or lowly educated women, both undergo tremendous stress and lifestyle changes when becoming mothers, which only makes them less willing to give birth.

All in all, this amounts to a depressing conundrum.

In my opinion, if this problem is to be tackled different approaches must be adopted towards women from various spectrums of society; not all face the same problems. For example, giving additional grants and incentives to women of lower income, as well as tax rebates and other subsidies to ease the burden of additional children.

Such methods, though, sound easy on paper, but in reality face a difficult problem: who is to pay.

On the other end of society, it becomes more tricky. To eradicate disadvantages faced by pregnant working women will require much more than the handing out of handouts, difficult though it already is. For one, companies will have to be persuaded to remove prejudices against pregnant women, maternity leave and incentives will have to be provided, and provisions will have to be made to ensure the transition from hospital to office is a smooth one.

Finally, the greatest task faced is that of changing the mindset of an entire society itself: people cannot think that being pregnant is stepping into the mundane life of childrearing, only to leave at the age of fifty or sixty.

To procure more handouts from the pockets of taxpayers is difficult enough, to convince profit oriented companies to provide support for mothers at their expense is harder, and to alter the mindset of our nation is a monumentous task, if not impossible.

However, what price is the nation prepared to pay for its very own survival?