Rohani: Good to have three or four kids in a family

MALAYSIANS should have more children – ideally three or four – to address the projected shrinking population.

Women, Family and Community Deve­lop­ment Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim said the average fertility rate of Malay­sians in 2012 was 2.1 children.

“This is expected to drop to 1.91 in 2020, based on the United Nations projection for Malaysia,” she said.

Rohani said the rate of 2.1 children was merely enough to replace their parents in the national population.

“We have done programmes to inform married couples that an ideal family should have three to four kids,” she told the Dewan Rakyat during question time.

“But the current trend now is to have two children or less. We cannot force couples to have more children as the decision is theirs to make,” Rohani said.

The minister said couples planned the number of their children according to their income when answering Dr Azman Ismail (PKR-Kuala Kedah) who raised the issue of the shrinking population in Malaysia, especially among the Chinese and Indian communities.

Rohani said by 2035, Malaysia was expected to have an aging population whereby 15% of the people would be aged 60 and above.

The country’s population was projected to grow to 32 million by 2020, based on the current birth rate, she said.

“We have implemented various initiatives to encourage couples to have more children,” she said.

“These include introducing family-friendly work arrangements to remind couples not to be too caught up in striving for a better quality of living but to think about having children for the long term future of the country,” she said.

Fertility clinics, she said, were also set up to help couples conceive.

Rohani said in 2012, Malays recorded a fertility rate of 2.6 children, while Chinese recorded 1.6 and Indians 1.5.

When Datuk Noraini Ahmad (BN-Parit Sulong) pointed out that some couples were fertile but did not want many children, Rohani said many couples delayed their marriages and wanted to start their families later in life.