SINGAPORE: “I got a call from a grassroots (worker) this morning, asking if I was pregnant,” reads a viral post on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu.
It was liked more than 11,000 times and received thousands of comments – and was just one out of multiple accounts describing similar experiences.
Chinese women shared that they received bizarre phone calls from supposed government workers, asking about family planning and pregnancy.
A Xiaohongshu user by the username Guo Guo, said she received a phone call which was uncomfortably personal and invasive. The working mother of two shared that she was asked when she would be conceiving a third child.
Although shocked, she still responded that she simply “did not have the time” as she was busy working. To which the caller replied: “You can get pregnant first. If your mother-in-law can’t take care of (your children), you can ask your mum.”
“Fertility call checks” was also a topic trend on the Sina Weibo microblogging site, with users questioning the legitimacy of such calls and discussing whether or not it was appropriate to be asking women such invasive and private questions.
“Things are getting desperate,” wrote a Weibo user in a comment that drew hundreds of likes. “I can’t see how effective this type of interrogation will be in the long run. How will it contribute to population numbers?”
“This is even weirder than scam calls,” another user said.
Grassroots government workers were ringing up women across the country as part of “a vigorous campaign organised by district administrative networks”, according to a Oct 28 report published by the South China Morning Post.
“The central government also hopes to learn why so many women are reluctant to have more children and devise new policy options,” the report said.
Workers would record and collect information such as marriage and childbirth statistics, which would then be entered into a central monitoring system, according to Caixin Global, a Beijing-based media group.