Chongqing home permit for 4m
Print Edition
After spending more than 20 years in Chongqing municipality as a migrant worker with no house or stable job, Xu Shuping has finally settled down.
Xu, 40, a welder at the Chongqing Gas Group Corp Ltd, will be attending a staff training course, which is only open for local employees, next month thanks to the “hukou,” or household registration.
Xu got his job after he managed to change his status from “agricultural household” to “non-agricultural household” three years ago when Chongqing launched changes to its household registration system in 2010.
The goal was to turn 10 million rural migrant workers into urban citizens by 2020.
Up till now, about 4 million rural residents in Chongqing have obtained their city “hukou” or “non-agricultural household” status. Xu, from Anshun Village in Chongqing’s Changshou District is one of them, as is his wife and 16-year-old daughter.
China’s “hukou” system was set up in 1958 to control the movement of people from rural to urban areas. Household registration is tied to one’s place of residence and is used to obtain access to basic welfare and public services.
The way the registration is categorized has created an urban-rural divide. People working in cities but still holding their official rural status do not enjoy the health care, education and social insurance offered to urbanites.
Chongqing’s move was aimed to reduce this divide and lower the threshold for rural residents to settle down in cities, said Xu Qiang, vice director of a task force set up to carry out the reform.
Under the regulations, rural workers employed in downtown Chongqing for five years or in remote county seats for three years can apply to become urban citizens.
The government also offered preferential policies for those who applied for non-agricultural status. They are allowed to retain use of their rural land even after they become urbanites.
In February 2012, the central government issued a circular urging local governments to speed up household registration system reform and not to link employment and education policies with household registration.
Premier Li Keqiang stressed at this year’s annual sessions of the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in March that China will put people first when it comes to urbanization.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
