China, eases one -child policy

China's top legislative committee -- committee of the National People's Congress, rubber-stamp parliament, at the conclusion of a six-day meeting, formally approved a loosening of the country's hugely controversial one-child policy yesterday and abolished "re-education through labour" camps, state media Xinhua news agency reported.
The widening of existing exceptions to the one-child policy will allow couples where either sibling-less parent to have two children, reforming the strict three decade-old family planning policy.
The abolition of re-education through labour, known as "laojiao", will see existing inmates freed, Xinhua said.
China's sex ratio has risen to 115 boys for every 100 girls, while the working population began to drop last year, and the birth rate having fallen, well below the replacement rate, to about 1.5 since the 1990s, Xinhua said earlier.
The one-child policy reforms are expected to come into force in the first quarter of 2014, according to a senior official from the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Xinhua reported last week.
The approval to end the labour camps closes the curtain on the more than the half-century old dark aspect of the country's modern history long criticised by human rights groups and which Chinese authorities admit is no longer viable.
China began re-education through labour in 1957 as a speedy way to handle petty offenders. But the system -- which allows a police panel to issue trial-less sentences of up to four years -- soon became rife with abuse.
A UN report published in 2009 estimated that 190,000 people were held in the camps.
But activists played down the significance of the labour camp system's abolition, pointing out that under Chinese law the authorities can still detain suspects for lengthy periods without a trial.