• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• no.36
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• pp.29-53
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• 2008

Being the most populated country in the world, China's one-child policy is its basic national policy. This basic national policy is implemented together with the Maternity Insurance, which is one of the five main social insurances in the Chinese society. The Maternity Insurance is society's way of recognizing women's contribution towards child- bearing and is of utmost important significance. However, with regard to women who are not living within the city or are not working, not only are they not the target for one-child policy, they are also unable to receive the social benefit from the Maternity Insurance. Among the conditions for payment of the Maternity Insurance is the adherence to the one-child policy. Ultimately, working women living in towns and cities adhering to the one-child policy will have a positive influence on the Maternity Insurance. However this places a restriction on reducing the discrepancies to benefit from the Maternity Insurance. On the contrary, women from the villages and those moving between towns and cities are those who really need the Maternity Insurance and yet are unable to benefit from it. While we improve on the Maternity Insurance to include this group of women, we have to at the same time consider the effect it has on the one-child policy. The reformation of the Maternity Insurance has to embody the principle of a harmonious society. It has to have a certain order in the country's national policies, so as to be included in the economic policies of towns and villages.