Six migrant workers will attend the 11th People's Congress of
Guangdong Province in January of next year as delegates, the first
time such workers have been representatives in the provincial
legislature.
The move came in March after the National People's Congress
(NPC), China's top legislature, adopted a resolution providing for
rural migrant worker representatives in the national parliament for
next year's session. This was viewed as a major step for the
country's political reform.
Two of the six Guangdong delegates will be elected from
Guangzhou, two from Shenzhen, one from Foshan and the other from
Dongguan by next Tuesday, said an official of the Standing
Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress.
Guangdong has more than 23 million migrant farm workers, greater
than any other Chinese province.
"Farm workers turned legislators will help solve our
difficulties in medical services and education," said Zhang
Hongbing, a farmer who has worked in Guangzhou for years. "I hope
children of migrant workers will have better education in the
future."
China has more than 120 million migrant workers, most of whom
are farmers from poor rural areas. They travel to the cities to
work in construction, mining, cleaning and catering industries, or
the kind of jobs usually labeled "dirty", "heavy", "hard" and
"exhausting".
Discrimination and prejudice against migrant workers is still
common among urban Chinese, and news organizations have frequently
reported infringements of their rights, such as unpaid wages.
(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2007)