BEIJING - Couples in China’s glittering metropolis of Shanghai are being encouraged to have another child to overcome an ageing population due to the decades old strictly enforced one-child policy norm, an official said.

“We advocate eligible couples to have two kids because it can help reduce the proportion of the ageing people and alleviate a workforce shortage in the future,” Xie Lingli, director of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission, was quoted as saying by China Daily Friday.

Shanghai has more than three million registered residents aged 60 and above, nearly 22 percent of the population. By 2020, the proportion is expected to rise to about 34 percent.

Family planning officials and volunteers will now make home visits and slip leaflets under doorways to encourage couples to have a second child if both have grown up as only children. Emotional and financial counselling will also be provided, officials said.

“The rising number of aging people will put pressure on the younger generation and society. We need to find ways to solve the problem, but it doesn’t mean the country’s family planning policy will be reversed,” Xie said.

While some people are open to it, others are not.

Xiao Wang, 25, who works at a local company, said: “I’m not sure, but such policy really gives us one more option. If family finances permit, I want to have two kids with my wife in the future.”

Another office worker, 26-year-old Xiao Chen, however, said: “I don’t think we will have a second kid.”

“After all, it is stressful work raising a child.”