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Rural and urban residents deserve same death benefits
By Gui Tao |
February 8, 2013, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ALTHOUGH Chinese may be born equal, when they perish, they may be different in terms of how much money they are worth.
A decedent's status within the two-tiered, urban-rural hukou system, or household registration, determines how much compensation will by paid by the government to the family of the deceased.
Urban residents tend to secure much more money than rural residents.
In general, hukou gives a person access to public services such as education and housing, based on where they are registered. People moving to other cities, or from rural areas to cities, have difficulties shifting their hukou and hence, difficulties in getting services.
The differential in death and disability benefits is a sad reality in a country where differentiated compensation has a legal basis.
The hukou system itself has been heavily criticized in recent years. The latest controversy follows the expressway bridge collapse that occurred in central China's Henan Province last week. Ten people were killed and many injured.
Hours after media reports that compensation for each victim with a rural hukou would be 220,000 yuan (US$35,000) less than the amount for urban victims, local officials promised a "single standard" in calculating compensation.
Discrimination
The pledge seems to be the result of a high-pressure situation and lots of publicity. These compromises have become more common, although differentiated compensation is still the status quo in China.
It is unknown whether someone with a rural hukou will "die equal" in the next accident.
The legal basis for differential compensation stems from a ruling by China's Supreme People's Court about personal injury compensation. The ruling went into effect in 2004. But differential practice, based on potential earning power, was in effect long before.
The court stipulated that the compensation should be based on the calculation of the deceased's estimated income for 20 years following his death.
Income figures, however, differ depending on whether a person lives in a well-off urban area or a destitute rural area.
Hukou essentially determines the amount of compensation relatives can receive.
Debates over the policy's pros and cons have been going on for decades. Advocates say that differentiated compensation is justified, since people in the rural areas earn much less than their urban peers.
But opponents say the policy is biased against rural residents living in cities. They have long been denied access to social welfare in cities and prevented from enjoying public services such as education, medical care, housing and employment, regardless of how long they may have lived or worked in a city.
There are some modest reforms in a few cities that give some migrants access to urban amenities if they meet work, residency and other requirements.
The hukou system is quite out of place in today's China, which features much greater mobility than it did 55 years ago, when the system was set up.
Reasons for change
It is unfair for someone with a rural hukou to receive lesser compensation despite toiling in a city for years. His or her "estimated income for the 20 years following his death" should be the same as that of his urban counterparts, even if they have a different hukou.
Identity- and entitlement-related differences between rural and urban citizens should be phased out.
In 2010, China's Electoral Law for the first time gave rural residents the same voting rights as urban dwellers, by adopting the same ratio of deputies to the represented population in elections to people's congresses.
The move represented a significant change regarding differentiated policies under the protection of the hukou system.
The system, which once effectively divided the population into the urban "haves" and the rural "have-nots," is sometimes manipulated by the haves to strengthen their vested interests.
The latest example is the case of Gong Ai'ai, a woman who made headlines after she was accused of purchasing multiple properties with forged identities. A subsequent investigation showed that Gong, who was detained by authorities this week, had four hukou, which is illegal in China.
The outdated hukou system needs reform. If it is too hard to start by providing the rural residents with equal social welfare and public services, start with giving them equal compensation.
The author is a Xinhua writer.
A decedent's status within the two-tiered, urban-rural hukou system, or household registration, determines how much compensation will by paid by the government to the family of the deceased.
Urban residents tend to secure much more money than rural residents.
In general, hukou gives a person access to public services such as education and housing, based on where they are registered. People moving to other cities, or from rural areas to cities, have difficulties shifting their hukou and hence, difficulties in getting services.
The differential in death and disability benefits is a sad reality in a country where differentiated compensation has a legal basis.
The hukou system itself has been heavily criticized in recent years. The latest controversy follows the expressway bridge collapse that occurred in central China's Henan Province last week. Ten people were killed and many injured.
Hours after media reports that compensation for each victim with a rural hukou would be 220,000 yuan (US$35,000) less than the amount for urban victims, local officials promised a "single standard" in calculating compensation.
Discrimination
The pledge seems to be the result of a high-pressure situation and lots of publicity. These compromises have become more common, although differentiated compensation is still the status quo in China.
It is unknown whether someone with a rural hukou will "die equal" in the next accident.
The legal basis for differential compensation stems from a ruling by China's Supreme People's Court about personal injury compensation. The ruling went into effect in 2004. But differential practice, based on potential earning power, was in effect long before.
The court stipulated that the compensation should be based on the calculation of the deceased's estimated income for 20 years following his death.
Income figures, however, differ depending on whether a person lives in a well-off urban area or a destitute rural area.
Hukou essentially determines the amount of compensation relatives can receive.
Debates over the policy's pros and cons have been going on for decades. Advocates say that differentiated compensation is justified, since people in the rural areas earn much less than their urban peers.
But opponents say the policy is biased against rural residents living in cities. They have long been denied access to social welfare in cities and prevented from enjoying public services such as education, medical care, housing and employment, regardless of how long they may have lived or worked in a city.
There are some modest reforms in a few cities that give some migrants access to urban amenities if they meet work, residency and other requirements.
The hukou system is quite out of place in today's China, which features much greater mobility than it did 55 years ago, when the system was set up.
Reasons for change
It is unfair for someone with a rural hukou to receive lesser compensation despite toiling in a city for years. His or her "estimated income for the 20 years following his death" should be the same as that of his urban counterparts, even if they have a different hukou.
Identity- and entitlement-related differences between rural and urban citizens should be phased out.
In 2010, China's Electoral Law for the first time gave rural residents the same voting rights as urban dwellers, by adopting the same ratio of deputies to the represented population in elections to people's congresses.
The move represented a significant change regarding differentiated policies under the protection of the hukou system.
The system, which once effectively divided the population into the urban "haves" and the rural "have-nots," is sometimes manipulated by the haves to strengthen their vested interests.
The latest example is the case of Gong Ai'ai, a woman who made headlines after she was accused of purchasing multiple properties with forged identities. A subsequent investigation showed that Gong, who was detained by authorities this week, had four hukou, which is illegal in China.
The outdated hukou system needs reform. If it is too hard to start by providing the rural residents with equal social welfare and public services, start with giving them equal compensation.
The author is a Xinhua writer.
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