Controversy in China: Companies Face Probe For Requiring Pregnancy Tests From Job Applicants

In China, there is currently a peculiar controversy unfolding in the world's second-largest economy. It may be a government policy to boost record-low birth rates, but pregnant women are being discriminated against regarding jobs. Forcing the government to direct an investigation against more than a dozen companies, reports state, that had been accused of demanding job applicants take pregnancy test before they are hired. Legal action might have to be initiated if the allegations tend to be true. Reportedly, as per Chinese regulations, companies are not allowed to ask women to undergo pregnancy tests for employment; also, discrimination through these means against pregnant female workers is not allowed.

Channels of Chinese state media reportedly carried recent allegations on companies within the Jiangsu province-based city of Nan Tong that accused them of conducting pregnancy tests on women. The report claims: 'It is said that in the city 16 companies had asked 168 women to undergo a pregnancy test before employing them. The fact came up as the online public interest lawsuit organization revealed the details regarding the companies in the city of Nan Tong. Taking into consideration the complaints the prosecutors launched an inquiry. They paid visits to two of the major hospitals and a medical examination center. According to the report, one pregnant woman was denied employment.'

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China's Population Policies and Trends

According to Chinese rules, companies that are proven to have discriminated based on gender may be fined to the tune of $6,900. China has faced a decline in population in the past two years. The country registered its lowest-ever birth rate since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. China for many years had a one-child policy. Only in the last few years, the government of China attempted to reverse this trend, but all efforts have been in vain until now. In 2015, the government permitted couples to give birth to two children, and in 2021, it raised the number to three. Raising a child in China is among the most expensive in the world. The amount spent on raising a single child to the age of 18 is 6.3 times that of the country's per capita income.

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