The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Public
Security have jointly developed a national vagrant information
management network linked to the household registration systems
across the country, according to Zhang Mingliang, director of the
Ministry of Civil Affairs' Department of Construction of
Basic-Level Government and Community. Zhang was speaking at a
working conference held in Beijing on Wednesday.
Trial operation will begin in April next year and the system
will go into full operation on August 1 to mark the second
anniversary of the introduction of the Measures on Aid and
Management of Urban Vagrants and Beggars.
The new information system will help vagrants and lost people
find their way home and distinguish the real homeless and helpless
from people who just take advantage of free food and other aid,
according to Zhang.
"More efforts are needed to get aid to the needy more quickly
and efficiently," Zhang stated.
As of the end of November, the country's 909 aid stations and
centers had provided help to more than 670,000 urban vagrants and
beggars, including more than 114,000 children and youngsters and
roughly 130,000 elderly people.
Zhang stated that there are an increasing number of street
children who run away from home or are forced to work or beg for
criminal gangs.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs has earmarked 25.0 million yuan
(US$3.0 million) this year to establish special aid centers for
street children. The ministry estimates that there were at least
150,000 children under the age of 16 living on the streets in each
of the past three years.
Many aid stations for vagrants, including those in Hebei,
Guangdong, Shandong, Hubei and Henan provinces, have established
special centers for street children.
Zhang said that the proclivity of some homeless people to
continue roaming the streets instead of going to shelters, thus
posing a potential threat to cities' security, was a puzzle for
civil affairs offices.
The country introduced the Measures on Aid and Management of
Urban Vagrants and Beggars in 2003. The program provides free aid
to urban vagrants, replacing the 20-year-old Regulation on
Detention and Deportation of Vagrants and Beggars.
(China Daily December 23, 2004)