Government and Policy

Chinese Premier Wen chats online with Internet users

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-27 09:51

'No discrimination' against farmer-turned workers

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that the government will strive to ensure no discrimination against farmer-turned workers in employment, education and training.

The government was mulling more measures to reform the household registration system, or hukou, in an active and steady manner, and a policy circular in this regard would be published, Wen said.

Efforts would be made to target the practical problems facing rural people working in cities, he said in answer to a question during an on-line chat with the public.

"Most importantly, farmers-turned-workers and their kids should never face discrimination in pursuing jobs, receiving compulsory education and training just because they are farmers under the household registration system," Wen said.

The legitimate land rights of rural migrant workers must also be safeguarded, he said.

"While working in cities, even after being registered as an urban resident, farmers-turned-workers can make their own choices freely as to whether they quit their rights over rural land previously allocated to them for housing and work," he said.

Many rural migrant workers had no stable work in the cities and their land in their hometowns was their fundamental guarantee for a living, he said.

Wen said rural migrant workers wanting urban residency could first consider county-level or township-level cities that were open to accept farmers as registered residents.

Big cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, which were already extremely crowded, could only offer limited opportunities in a gradual manner to rural people who had been working there long-term with stable jobs, accommodation and incomes, he said.

China has 240 million rural people working in cities, and migrant workers account for a significant proportion of the country's industrial labor force and urban construction workers.