City aims to extend welfare cover
- Source: Global Times
- [09:56 July 12 2010]
- Comments
Delegates at a forum marking the 21st World Population Day in the UN Pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai Sunday. Photo: IC
By Zhou Ping
Officials said Sunday that the central government is making efforts to ensure equal access to public services for people from outside of Shanghai, including migrant workers, to allow them to enjoy the same level of welfare as those born in the city.
A forum marking the 21st World Population Day was held Sunday at the UN Pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Policy makers and experts discussed how to carry out the theme of "everyone counts" in China's upcoming census in November and how to offer equal access to public services.
"Local governments are encouraged to invest more to offer the floating population equal public services," Zhang Chunsheng, general director of the Department of Migrant Population Services and Management with the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said. "The central government is to financially encourage and support local governments in this."
At present, the level of welfare entitlement for people living in the city depends on whether they hold a hukou (household registration) or residential permit. People with neither, such as migrant workers, are generally the least well covered.
"Several measures are being taken to make sure that migrant workers can enjoy the same public services, including giving vocational training to migrants and improving their living conditions," Dou Hong, chief of the policy research section of the China Center for Urban Development with the National Development and Reform Commission, said Sunday. "We'll focus more on allowing every migrant to enjoy equal education, medical care and other public services."
"If migrants can enjoy equal rights to basic public services in the city, then getting hold of a hukou will not be as promi-nent an issue as it is now," Dou added.
Kuai Dashen, a researcher with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times Sunday that there is still much to do to improve the lot of migrant workers.
"During the past few years, migrants in Shanghai have drawn more attention from the government and enjoyed better public services, such as migrant children getting access to compulsory education, but there's still a lot that needs to be done," he said.
"I think it's great to make sure everyone can enjoy the same public services," Li Yan, an office worker from Anhui Province who has worked in Shanghai for the past four years and has neither a hukou nor a residential permit, told the Global Times Sunday. "I pay the same tax as Shanghainese people do, but I am not entitled to the same welfare benefits."
Shanghai had over 4 million migrant workers in January 2009, Han Zheng, the mayor of Shanghai said at a news conference that month. Nationally, there are 140 million migrant workers, according to Dou.
