Migrant Workers to Enter China’s Legislature
China’s millions of rural migrant workers will have their own representatives seated in the national people’s congress if a draft resolution on lawmaker elections for next year’s National People’s Congress is approved by legislators at the ongoing 10th NPC annual session.
The draft resolution on deputy election for the 11th NPC has been submitted to lawmakers for deliberation, stipulating that provinces and municipalities with a large population of rural migrant workers should have an NPC deputy quota for them.
Sheng Huaren, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, told about 3,000 legislators that China’s migrant labor population has become larger and is growing into one of the mainstays of the country’s work force. Sheng says they should have a number of lawmakers to represent their rights and interests.
The draft resolution also proposed an increase of lawmakers from farmers and industrial workers, saying that the NPC deputy numbers from these groups is dropping in recent years.
China has about 200 million migrant workers, of whom more than 120 million work in cities and the remainder work in villages. Official figures show 13 million farmers will become migrant workers each year if China reaches the urbanization target of 56%.