How household registration reform makes urban and rural areas more equal
Recently, Beijing introduced the "Implementation Opinions on Further Advancing Household Registration System Reform," abolishing the distinction between agricultural and non-agricultural household registration status and establishing a unified urban-rural household registration system, which has drawn widespread public attention.
What impact will Beijing's abolition of agricultural household registration have on relieving non-capital functions? After the policy is introduced, how can systems for healthcare, education, employment, and social security be further improved, resources distributed fairly, and the vast number of farmers given the confidence and willingness to truly settle down and become "residents"?
Unified registration as resident households
Beijing's abolition of the distinction between agricultural and non-agricultural household registration status and unified registration as resident households is an innovation in population service management. Establishing education, health and family planning, employment, social security, housing, land, and population statistics systems compatible with a unified urban-rural household registration system, implementing the residence permit system, improving the population information management system, and achieving cross-departmental integration and sharing of information -- as the capital, this undoubtedly has demonstrative significance.
It is understood that Beijing had previously abolished the restrictive conditions for converting agricultural household registration to non-agricultural status. In August of this year, among the 18 convenience service measures introduced by the Beijing police, it was proposed to abolish the restriction on changing the household registration status of Beijing agricultural household registration holders from agricultural to non-agricultural, which can now be processed upon voluntary application.
The main welfare differences between agricultural household registration and non-agricultural household registration lie in land and access to public services. The rights and interests of agricultural household registration mainly consist of contracted land and homestead land, while the rights and interests of non-agricultural household registration mainly consist of certain social welfare benefits attached to household registration, including education, healthcare, employment, insurance, and housing.
Some people worry that abolishing agricultural household registration will affect farmers' existing rights and interests. In response, experts say that Beijing's household registration system reform uniformly renames farmers and urban residents as residents, eliminating status distinctions and thereby gradually achieving integrated urban-rural social management of residents, equalization of public services, and equalization of welfare benefits, which is conducive to promoting social fairness and justice.
"Household registration follows the person" to relieve population in central urban districts
Can Beijing's abolition of agricultural household registration relieve non-capital functions and reduce population density in central urban districts? The "Implementation Opinions" clearly propose that by 2020, Beijing's permanent resident population be controlled within 23 million, and the permanent resident population of the six urban districts decrease by about 15 percentage points from the 2014 level.
In accordance with the requirements for orderly relieving non-capital functions and optimizing and enhancing the capital's core functions, Beijing strictly adheres to the red line for total population, focuses on optimizing and adjusting the economic structure and spatial structure, actively promotes "people follow functions, people follow industries," continuously reduces population density in central urban districts, and simultaneously studies a household registration relocation policy whereby "household registration follows the person."
Data show that in the first half of this year, the population of Beijing's six urban districts decreased by 110,000 year-on-year, while the city's permanent resident population increment and growth rate both declined compared with the same period last year. However, the phenomenon of "separation of people and household registration" is pronounced.
Experts analyze that many of those with separated people and household registration in Beijing are high-end individuals, including those settled abroad, transferred out of Beijing, assigned to posts through exchanges in other places, and business people. The key to "household registration follows the person" still lies in the quality public services contained behind household registration, such as healthcare, education, and social security. Only when these aspects are balanced will people be willing to unite person and household registration.
At the same time, a relevant official from the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission said that relieving population and introducing talent are not contradictory. Beijing will actively implement the points-based household registration system, improve talent household registration policies, build an economic structure needed for "high-end, precision, and advanced" development, implement a more open talent introduction policy, improve household registration systems for high-level talent and urgently needed scarce talent, and attract high-level talent to innovate in Beijing.
How are farmers' interests safeguarded when they enter the city
Data published on the official website of the Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau show that as of the end of 2015, 1.74 million farmers in Beijing were enrolled in the urban-rural residents' pension insurance, with a basic pension of 470 yuan, less than that of urban residents. Experts point out that after abolishing agricultural household registration and uniformly registering them as residents, farmers are given equal status and equal treatment. Their welfare in pension, healthcare, education, and other aspects will be further improved.
Sun Wenkai, secretary of the Rural Work Committee of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, said that in the next 5 years, Beijing will vigorously promote equalization of public services, achieving urban-rural integration in seven areas: "employment, education, medical health, culture and sports, elderly care, social security, and assistance." In education, it is necessary to achieve balanced urban-rural allocation of high-quality educational resources; in medical health, the focus should be on solving the shortage of rural clinics and medical personnel; in social security, it is necessary to achieve municipal-level unified management of the urban-rural residents' pension insurance fund, achieve municipal-level unified management and immediate settlement of the new rural cooperative medical system as soon as possible, and establish a unified urban-rural residents' medical insurance system before the end of 2018. At the same time, comprehensively deepen rural reform, deeply advance land circulation, asset operation, and farmer organization, further enhance rural development vitality, and protect and realize farmers' property rights and development rights.
However, some experts say that the goal of household registration system reform is to achieve equalization of resource distribution and public services, and abolishing agricultural household registration is only the first step. Only when equal supply of public resources is truly achieved can the household registration system reform aimed at eliminating the urban-rural dual divide be considered truly successful.