Thousands of China earthquake parents apply for permission to have another child

SIX MONTHS after the Sichuan earthquake that left 88,000 people dead or missing, thousands of people are applying for government permission to have more children, as figures revealed that more than 8,000 families lost their only child in the disaster.

The quake struck in the afternoon of May 12th when most children were at school, and a disproportionate number of children died in the disaster.

Investigations into shoddy school construction are ongoing and remain a major issue six months later.

More than 600 children were orphaned by the 8.0-magnitude earthquake but to date only 12 children have been formally adopted.

Most of the remaining orphans would be taken in by relatives, the Beijing News reported. The remaining children would be housed in orphanages.

China's one-child policy forbids couples having more than one child in most cases, but in late July the Sichuan government introduced emergency legislation allowing families who lost their only child, or whose child was disabled by the quake, to have another child.

Chen Changjun, director of the population and family-planning bureau in the devastated town of Beichuan, said about 800 couples had already registered there to try for another child. "About half of the women were at the age of between 35 and 40, when they will come across more problems than the childbearing-age women," said Mr Chen.

China's one-child policy has been in effect for more than three decades.

Criticised in the West for causing hardship, the Chinese say it has prevented an estimated 400 million births and stopped the country's population of 1.3 billion getting out of control.

Finding homes for those displaced by the earthquake is a major task, as five million people were left homeless.

The government said last week it would provide €110 billion in the next three years to build permanent housing, as well as schools and clinics.