by Chen Xiwen, deputy office chief of the central government's

Central Leading Group of Financial Work

The State Council held a national workshop earlier this month on the issue of farmers-turned-urban workers. This was the first conference of its kind in the country.

Conference participants stressed that 10 practical issues of greatest concern for migrant workers should be solved with strenuous efforts. These include the default of their payments, the minimum wage level, labour contracts, work safety and hygienic conditions, protection of their rights and interests, employment guidance, skill and safety training, insurance, their children's rights to receive compulsory education in cities, family planning and health services.

It is believed that protection of migrant workers' rights and interests and their employment conditions will be improved when the above-mentioned work gets enhanced.

The issues concerning migrant workers are special social phenomena during China's modernization and urbanization process.

In the years of planned economy, farmers-turned city residents would be seen to by the government in terms of employment, housing, social security and their children's schooling.

But only a very few farmers got such opportunities. Farmers, as a whole, were tied to the land.

After the country adopted the reform and opening-up policy, farmers' right to choose a job expanded. They were able to work freely in rural industries or do jobs in cities and towns.

But this has been a difficult process.

In recent years, farmers-turned-workers started as "blind migrants" loathed by some city dwellers and are now still limited to manual work that their city counterparts are unwilling to do. Their wages are low and always defaulted. Their work safety cannot be guaranteed and living conditions are poor. Husbands and wives have to separate and their children, usually excluded from urban schools due to high fees, are left at home.

While the living conditions of migrant workers are not optimistic, the contingent is becoming bigger year by year. This shows farmers' pursuit of the well-off civic life and the irresistibility of economic social development.

The migrant workers' hardships and the 10 issues stressed at the conference are really provocative.

What is the hard nut for China's modernization? Everyone may have his or her own understanding, but no one can deny that a huge rural population and low urbanization level are the crux of it.

Since the land contract and responsibility system was implemented, farmers began looking for job opportunities outside their home land. Thus there appeared township enterprises and a large influx of rural labourers into towns and cities.

More than 20 years of migrant workers' persistence gets paid by the state's commitment to solve the issues that closely concern their lives now that society realizes the relationship between migrant workers and the country's modernization.

But the title of "farmers-turned-workers" still exists, which shows that these labourers' status has not been changed though they are able to work in cities. It also demonstrates the difficulties of China's urbanization.

Farmers were not able to transfer into cities in the very early years due to the country's insufficient supply of goods and materials. When the basic supply was uncertain, public enterprises were unable to provide enough employment opportunities for migrant labourers.

With the growth of the non-public sector in our socialist market economy, there has been a great increase of jobs in cities and towns. But the reform of the social welfare system has made social security and housing the two biggest obstacles for farmers-turned-workers to merge in the urban society.

From "blind migrants" to "farmers -turned-workers" and further to city dwellers, it is really a long and rocky road for Chinese farmers to transform into urban residents.

Statistics show that the number of rural labourers working in non-agricultural industries was 21.82 million in 1978 and 204.12 million in 2005. During the same period, the number of labourers engaged in agriculture increased from 284.56 million to 299.76 million as well. The urban population, including farmers-turned- workers and their family members who live in cities for more than six months, was 562.12 million, accounting for 43 percent of the total population in 2005.

But calculated by their permanent residence registration, the rural population was still 949.08 million and the urbanization rate was only 27.4 percent - just over three-fifths of the figure calculated according to their actual residence.

All these data show that the transfer of rural labour is still facing severe challenges. It should be fully recognized to better understand the hardship of China's urbanization.

There will always be hope ahead. Two decades ago, it could not be imagined that hundreds of millions of farmers would be working in cities. As the country deepens reform and steps up development, problems will be solved one by one.

And when they are, the concept of "farmers-turned-workers" will finally fade from history.

(China Daily October 25, 2006)