Zeng Shuqing, a female farmer from central China's
Henan Province, traveled all the way to Beijing to secure an
urban job.
Though she is employed in a plastic factory in Beijing now the
41-year-old Zeng is concerned about her lack of necessary skills to
secure a future livelihood to support her two children and ensure
they are educated.
A joint program, the Action of Promotion of Employment and
Rights for Female Migrant Workers in Beijing was launched on Monday
by China and the European Union in a bid to help female farmers
like Zeng with their problems.
The program will study and analyze the living conditions,
related policies and regulations, employment, medical care,
insurance, housing, education and democratic rights of female
migrant workers in an effort to improve their conditions and
provide training and support.
Statistics show that women account for a third of the 4 million
migrant workers in Beijing.
Female employees have become an indispensable part of the
migrant workforce, said Cui Yu, head of the development department
of the All
China Women's Federation. "China tries to make female migrant
workers the participants as well as the beneficiaries of building
an affluent society," Cui said.
With acceleration of urbanization the massive surplus of
laborers in rural areas have been moving to the cities to work in a
range of jobs including construction, housekeeping, processing and
various service trades.
China has more than 120 million migrant workers and they’ve made
a significant contribution to the modernization of cities. But many
are still faced with non payment of wages and being expected to do
too much overtime, said Wang Yue, chairman of the Board of
Directors of the Chinese Association of Non-Government
Organizations (CANGO).
The traditional urban management model, especially the
limitations of the residence registration system, has created an
unfair welfare environment for migrant workers, he added. Compared
with their urban peers migrant workers also lacked vocational
training and skills.
Liu Danhua, deputy director of the training and employment
bureau with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, said migrant
workers served as an important force in building a new socialist
countryside. In recent years China has abolished restrictions
against farmers working in cities and issued a number of policies
favoring migrant workers.
But up until now the problems of the overdue wages of migrant
workers and the education of their children had not been improved,
Liu said.
In the past few years China has provided training programs for
women in the countryside like housekeeping, babysitting and taking
care of the elderly. Many say that they have "learned skills and
grown in confidence".
(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2006)