Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China
The protection of women and children's right to health is improving. Before the founding of the PRC in 1949, the maternal and perinatal mortality rate was over 1,500 per 100,000, the infant mortality rate was 200 per 1,000, and the anticipated life expectancy of women was only 36.7 years. After 1949, the situation improved considerably. The anticipated life expectancy of women in 2015 rose to 79.43 years. In 2018 the maternal and perinatal mortality rate dropped to 18.3 per 100,000, and the infant mortality rate fell to 6.1 per 1,000. Nutritional improvement projects for children in impoverished areas were launched in 2012, benefiting 7.22 million children from 715 impoverished counties in 14 national contiguous impoverished regions of 21 provinces and equivalent administrative units. The government has launched a program of free cervical and breast cancer checkups for women, and brought the two into the scope of national subsidies for serious illnesses. By 2018 China had provided free cervical cancer checkups for 100 million and free breast cancer checkups for 30 million, and subsidized 132,200 impoverished rural women with diseases using over RMB1.3 billion collected through public welfare lotteries and social funds, to the sum of RMB10,000 each person. It has increased the investment for health care of women and children in rural, remote or border areas, and has subsidized more than 74 million rural women for their expenses of hospitalization during childbirth. The government has initiated the "Water Cellar for Mothers" program to provide reliable sources of drinking water for people, especially women, in the western regions of China, and the "Health Express for Mothers" program to provide medical and health services to the women and children in impoverished areas.
Women's rights to participation in the administration of public affairs and social and economic development are protected. Women are guaranteed the right to participate in the administration and deliberation of state affairs. The 13th NPC has 742 female deputies, accounting for 24.9 percent of the total, 12.9 percentage points higher than the figure for the First NPC in 1954. And the 13th CPPCC National Committee has 440 female members, making up 20.4 percent of the total, 14.3 percentage points higher than that for the First CPPCC National Committee in 1949. Since the 1990s, every CPC National Congress has attached importance to training and selecting female officials. The number of female civil servants was 65,000 in 1950; this figure had increased to 1.93 million, or 26.8 percent of all civil servants, by 2018.
