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REGIONAL> Top regional news
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Baby boom to mothers' gloom
By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-24 09:59 Liu Yurong has been ordered by officials to return to her hometown. She has been told she must travel 1,600 km, put her job at risk and abandon her son. Why? To prove she is not pregnant.
Like the many female migrant workers who have had children, she must undergo regular tests as part of China's family planning policy, which was implemented in the 1970s to control the nation's booming population. For the past three years, Liu has been earning 1,000 yuan ($145) a month at a textile factory in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, and has mailed her pregnancy test results back to the authorities in Lianyuan, a city in Hunan province. But after a rise in the number of forged documents being reported by family planning offices nationwide, she was ordered to return to be examined in person. "My boss is not going to allow me to leave," said Liu, 28, who lives with her truck driver husband and four-year-old son. "I might lose my job if I go. Also, who will take care of my son while I am away? "It would cost several hundred yuan to make the journey. I cannot afford to go back. "My mother-in-law told me family planning officials had visited several times and demanded 2,000 yuan as a deposit, which they threatened to keep if I didn't return." The law states families in urban areas are allowed one child, barring special exceptions, while in the countryside mothers can have a second child if their first was a girl. The policy has prevented 400 million births, the government said. But for migrant workers, and the family planning officials charged with keeping track of them, it is a major headache.
According to the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC), by early 2008, China had 150 million migrant workers, including about 56 million women. Of these women, at least 57 percent were of "childbearing age", effectively between 20, the legal age limit, and 45 years old. And, due to their ever-mobile nature, the government, worried the rules are being flouted, is trying expanded support projects in areas with large migrant populations. It follows findings by the NPFPC that, for the past 10 years, almost 65 percent of all "illegal" babies have been born to migrants. However, they refused to reveal how many violations there had been. "I ran a huge risk when I took my children to my home village in Anhui province for the Spring Festival," said Wu Qingxia, one of the violators, who has a son, aged five, and an three-year-old daughter. "I had to lie to my old neighbors the girl was a friend's daughter because I was not allowed to have her as my first child was a boy." Wu and her husband moved to the city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang, six years ago in the search of a better life. She explained: "As we were from outside the city, the control by local family planning authorities was relatively loose for us, so we got to have our little girl." Her story is not a unique one, according to Fan Yude, deputy director of Qinyuan county family planning bureau in Zhejiang. "People like Wu exist in every city in China with a large population of migrant workers," he said. "The family planning work situation and capacity varies from place to place, so migrants might actually not be covered or well controlled." Compared to the nation's urban population, farmers tend to hold true to the traditional preference for a male heir. They also make up a large proportion of the migrant population. People who live in cities but whose hukou is registered in their hometowns or villages must obtain temporary residency permits in any new city from the local public security bureau. This enables them to get a job, rent an apartment or start a company. To have a child, they must then report their marital status to the local family planning administration, which checks the information against a national database to prevent any violations. But due to gaps in the system, coupled with the frequent migratory habits of workers on short-term contracts, it is by no means foolproof. Zhang Meijuan, a family planning official for Beijing's Shijingshan district, said: "In my patch, there are 20 residential communities with large concentrations of migrant workers, and it takes us almost a week to finish collecting and confirming reproduction details in one community. But when we go back a short time later, the people are already gone. "This means the information on the database is often out of date. Our recorded information changes every two to three months." Hospitals are also required to update the database with details of births and maternity examinations. Zhang added: "Sometimes, after a hospital has reported a female migrant from my area is pregnant or has given birth and I went to their home to offer health information and support, there is no one at the registered address." As the government tries to clamp down on violations of the family planning policy, the level of inconvenience for migrants is naturally going to rise, said Zhai Zhenwu, dean of the school of sociology and population at Renmin University of China in Beijing. On the subject of Liu Yurong in Taizhou, whose relatives had to hand over cash to officials in case she failed to return, he said: "I don't agree with such a practice, but I somewhat understand their (the family planning official's) desperation. Some migrant workers just send back fake pregnancy tests to fool officials in their hometowns." Regulations can change slightly from province to province and, in some, married women who cannot legally have a second child and live outside of their village or town of origin must take three pregnancy tests a year, with the results sent home, said Zhai. However, some authorities require them to appear in person. "It has caused problems, but complaints from migrants about the actual implementation of family planning policy itself are even higher," said Pan Guiyu, deputy director of the China Family Planning Association. Fei Junxia and husband Lu Men, both from Sichuan province and in their late 20s, are expecting their first child in February. But despite being two months into her pregnancy, she has to travel back to her village from Beijing for a "birth permit" in order to get a public hospital bed in the capital. "I'm pregnant, but still I have to travel," she said. "My friend didn't bother to go back for the permit and had to deliver the baby in a private low-quality hospital, which put her health at risk." For Zhai and Pan, the problem lies not with the policy but with the challenges faced by the various local family planning authorities in sharing information and making sure it is accurate. "As well as enforcement, the government should also be focusing on support services for these migrant workers," added Pan. Those who break the family planning laws face a fine of up to 10,000 yuan. But Zhang in Beijing said the threat of punishment has failed to prevent violations, mainly as it is difficult to collect the money. "Over the years, we've discovered that the key is to balance the reproductive control and service," she said. "Simple administrative measures and coercion do not work nowadays. Instead, we have to assure migrants of good service and support. Only then will they truly feel obligated to follow the policy. "Now we solicit involvement from volunteers within the floating population and register each new arrival in the community and every exit. Our workers and volunteers regularly distribute contraceptive devices and handouts carrying information on reproductive health, as well as organize free maternity and health checks for migrants. We also give them support with job information, child education and administrative convenience." To ease the burden on migrant mothers, they will soon be able to receive free contraceptives and support services in their city of temporary residence thanks to a new regulation to come into effect on Oct 1. It will hopefully mean women like Liu will not have to take on mammoth journeys for a pregnancy test. "We will be setting up pavilions in target areas, such as neighborhoods, factories, and markets, to raise awareness of the new rules," said Zhang. For some of those who left the countryside behind for a life in the city, though, habits are changing fast. Li Hongfang, 34, was born in Henan province but has worked as a maid in Beijing for five years. Her first child was a girl but she says she has no interest in trying for a boy, despite being legally entitled to. "My husband can earn more than 2,500 yuan selling vegetables here, so I just want to earn more money to give my daughter a good education," said Li, who makes 1,200 yuan a month. The couple's nine-year-old daughter lives with her grandparents in their home village, where the average annual income is just 4,000 yuan. "When we've saved enough money we'll bring them here and never go back," she said. "In cities, we don't need to work hard on the land, so a girl and a boy are the same."
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