China is facing up to the fact that the correlation between
poverty and crime must be addressed. China's poor have limited
education and employment opportunities, a situation that forces
many to turn to crime to eke out a living thereby putting the
country's social stability at risk, according to a report in
Outlook, a Beijing-based weekly magazine, on February 9.
The report referred to a research conducted in three inland
cities – Chengdu, Chongqing and Xi'an – and proposed that more
employment and education opportunities be provided for the
poor.
"It's not because I am not hardworking. But I come from a poor
family and I have very few options," said Xiao Chen, a 21-year-old
woman from Chengdu.
Xiao Chen's father, the family's sole breadwinner, passed away
in 1995, leaving her and her mother to fend for themselves. They've
been surviving on a minimum monthly allowance of 320 yuan (US$40)
from the local government.
The minimum allowance system, established nationwide in 1993 for
the urban poor, is part of China's social security scheme.
Relatives pooled their resources to put Xiao Chen through
university. She graduated from Sichuan University
last August but hasn't been able to find a job since.
"Only winning the lottery will change my destiny," she said.
Inheriting poverty
China's widening rich-poor divide has made it increasingly
difficult for its poor to lift themselves, and therefore their
descendents, out of poverty.
Statistics from Chengdu authorities show that only 2.8 percent
of its existing civil servants had parents who were migrant workers
from the countryside; 26 percent were the average office workers,
and 33.3 percent were themselves former civil servants.
Unequal education opportunities
Hu Guangwei, a researcher with the Sichuan Academy of Social
Sciences, said that unequal education opportunities are to blame
for the passing on of poverty from one generation to the
next.
Statistics show that people with a college education earn three
times more than those with primary school education, and nine times
more than those without any educational qualifications.
Studies have also shown that those on the minimum allowance
scheme spend 19 percent of their income on education, believing
education to be a major burden.
But according to the Outlook report, many unemployed
people and the migrant workers believe their children to be their
only chance of dragging their families out of the poverty
doldrums.
Unemployment and poverty: a vicious circle
Unemployment hampers the free movement of poor people, which
means they can't go out to find work in order to change their
situations.
Surplus workers from the rural areas are generally willing to do
any type of work they can find. But current policies pertaining to
social security for these workers are obstacles to their settling
down in cities.
Many turn to crime in desperation.
According to public security agencies from Chengdu, Chongqing
and Xi'an cities, crime rates among the urban poor have increased
steadily in recent years, with robbery and theft cases being the
most prevalent.
Hu Guangwei stressed that change must be effected on all fronts:
employment schemes must be standardized, regular job fairs should
be organized, a government-subsidized vocational training scheme
should be instituted, and preferential tax and banking policies
should be implemented for the poor.
(China.org.cn by Wang Zhiyong, February 21, 2006)