Urban-rural divide put under spotlight
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"Making the migrant worker status history is a breaking point in dismantling the dual urban-rural system," Chi said.
Chi suggested that work should start during the 12th Five-Year Plan to integrate the urban-rural resident registration systems and encompass rural migrant workers who work in cities under all basic public services.
"Enabling migrant workers to become full urban residents should become a public duty of the government," Chi said. "A part of the revenue governments make from selling the land should be used to help provide basic urban housing for migrant workers."
Peng said the economic divide between the urban and rural areas is "the main barrier" in reducing urban-rural disparity. As a result, the income gap between urban and rural residents has widened from 2.8:1 in 2000 to 3.3:1 last year.
"The gap in real income is much larger if we take into account the medical care, education, social security, housing and social services that the urban residents enjoy," Peng said.
He said this has "prevented rural residents from sharing the fruits of reforms but also violated the principle of equality and justice".
Peng said that despite China's rapid urbanization over the past 30 years, about 150 million migrant workers and their families, who live and work in urban areas, have not been treated as equal to urban peers as far as social services are concerned.
"Resolving problems relating to their identity and their right to public services will help ensure healthy urbanization and social harmony," Peng said.
Meanwhile, China must also deal with inadequate rural pensions and social safety nets, incomplete urban and rural public service systems, and weak rural grassroots democratic community management, he said.
Napoleaon Navarro, deputy country director of UNDP, said China "needs to build consensus in all sectors of society" to address the problems in agriculture, rural villages and among farmers.
Better planning is needed for China to start removing all obstacles that confront the 150 million migrant workers from becoming full urban citizens, Navarro said.
China should also promote reforms to make its financial, land and other public services more equitable to rural residents, Navarro said, adding there is a need to improve the management structure to enable citizens to participate in rural governance.
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