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People hold placards in front of the Eiffel Tower during a rally to protest against discrimination on October 17， 2013 in Paris， as part of the 2013 World Poverty Day. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty， celebrated each year on October 17 throughout the world， takes place in Paris on the Human Rights and Liberties Plaza at the Trocad to honour victims of poverty， hunger and violence， at the call of French NGO ATD Quart Monde.
On October 17， 2013， the 21st International Day for the Eradication of Poverty， Poverty Reduction and Development Forum was held in Beijing. Looking back at China’s urbanization of over 30 years， remarkable achievements have been made in poverty reduction， which is an important drive in realizing the global goal of “reducing the population of extreme poverty by half from 1990 to 2015”. However， in the process of economic transition and social transformation， new urbanization problems are also emerging： unbalanced development between urban and rural areas， sharp contradictions between urban development and resources and environment， the increasingly prominent problem of China’s urban poverty and the major challenges of urban living environment. These problems are also faced by lots of developing countries， especially by those middle income countries with the urbanization rate between 45% and 70%.
“Urban Poverty” in the Process of Urbanization
It can be said that urbanization successfully help China get rid of poverty. According to the latest data of World Bank， in recent decades， China has made great achievements in getting rid of poverty with the rate of China’s extreme poverty population of the world extreme poverty population dropping from 43% in 1981 to 13% in 2010. In fact， China’s extreme poverty population is mostly distributed in rural areas. Urbanization has brought a large number of rural population to urban areas and thus the rural areas have made a great achievement in getting rid of poverty. However， how’s the situation of those migrant workers？ Does living in a city mean getting rid of poverty and being a member of the city？ The questions have aroused peoples’ great attention to the rural people living in cities. Especially with the publicizing of unemployment， the unsound welfare system and the trend of counter urbanization resulted from a large number of migrant workers returning home， all these have made the increasingly prominent problem of “urban poverty” in the process of urbanization more emergent.. According to Meiyan Wang， professor of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences， urban poverty population mainly includes two categories. One is the poverty population of urban residents and the other is the poverty population of the floating population migrating from the countryside to city. Since the reform and opening-up， especially since the 1990s， with the gradual demolition of the various systems blocking the free flow of labor， a large number of rural labors have come into cities for employment. The migrant workers， compared with the local urban people， have a lower income， worse living environment， lesser coverage of social insurance and worse social welfare and service. From this perspective， although those people have gotten rid of rural extreme poverty， they have formed “urban poverty” again.
Poverty Standards should be Multidimensional
China has begun to reconsider the standards and meaning of poverty since the emergence of “urban poverty”. Since the beginning of 1980s， the Chinese government has begun to adopt the rural poverty line set up by National Bureau of Statistics and made it the standard of identifying the rural poverty population and rural poverty rate. The rural poverty line is established on the concept of living poverty and this line is used to identify the group living in poverty. Sangui Wang， director of the antipoverty problem research center of Renmin University of China， said in an interview with reporters that right now， China’s poverty standards mainly use economic incomes as indicators and absolute poverty as benchmark.
According to statistics， China’s latest poverty line has been significantly raised to net income of 2，300 Yuan of farmers per capita. Media has said that China’s poverty standard is the closest to the international poverty line of World Bank ever， that is to say it is closer to the poverty line of 1.25 dollars a day per capita set up by World Bank. Yet change in numbers is only the first step. The outside world is hoping to see how the rapidly developing China can help over 100 million poverty population really get rid of “1 dollar life”.
The currently adopted poverty standard does not include factors of other dimensions. For example， the newly emerged urban poverty population has not been listed into the scopes of poverty standards. Professor MeiyanWang told the reporter： “Income is only one factor of the poverty of floating people. For a better living and development， other than incomes， people also need education， medical care and living environment， etc. Although migrant rural workers have got rid of absolute living poverty， the conditions of their consumption， social security， living and education do not look good. How to shift from economic poverty eradication to poverty eradication of knowledge， consumption， culture and quality will become the top priority in making poverty eradication strategy in the future. And Director Sangui Wang has also said that poverty standards in the future will shift from the single dimension of economic incomes to the multidimensional measurement to accommodate the development trend of future urbanization. Policy orientation should protect the basic welfare of rural migrant workers and take into account of the group’s development status to better able to solve urban poverty problems and ensure the achievements of poverty eradication. The Cause of “Urban Poverty”-- Binary Household Registration System is the Key
According to Yining Li， director of Social Sciences of Peking University， floating population in poverty are not qualified to apply for urban subsistence allowances and rural subsistence allowances basically are not able to cover them. Thus， the floating population is in the vacuum zone of poverty allowances.
The key issues of urbanization are what industry farmers should take after they turn into city dwellers and whether the basic welfare and public service can meet their requirements. These issues are the core of the reform. If these issues cannot be solved and the conditions cannot be provided， urbanization will only be formality or even worse lead a large number of farmers into more sever poverty conditions and society will fall into a more uneven wealth gap. In the 2013 Poverty Reduction and Development Forum， Vice Premier Wang Yang also said that the quality of China's urbanization is not high. There are still unreasonable points to be corrected. Urbanization may also lead to the reattribution to poverty of certain areas and the floating population.
The essential cause for the reattribution to poverty of the floating population is their relatively low absolute incomes. Besides， due to the relatively worse social security condition and their uncertain expectations of the future， the floating population’s consumption level is relatively low.
For example， most of the floating population has not bought their own houses. Their living conditions and environment are very poor. Lots of floating population are not able to bring their children to cities with them and can only leave them stay in their rural homes to become stay-at-home children. Those who take their children with them can only afford for their children to go to schools for migrant workers’ children or city schools of poor quality. Besides， the floating population does not have urban household registration and thus cannot enjoy the same social welfare and public service as city residents.
Professor Meiyan Wang said： “Carrying out radical household register reform is the most fundamental way to make the floating population enjoy equal social welfare and public service as urban residents.” According to relevant information， cities of different sizes and development levels vary a lot in difficulty and progress of the household register reform. Overall， the household register system has not made substantial reform. Besides the functions of registering and managing population and household register are also closely related to social welfare and public service. Why does the Urban-rural Dualism still Exist？
Professor Yining Li explains： “If household register is suddenly changed from dualism to monism， there will be no obstacles for population flow between the countryside and cities. If millions of farmers migrate into city， the city order will be a disaster. Likewise， if city people know they can freely migrate into the countryside and then move to the countryside to acquire the houses of those farmers who have poured into cities what should we do about this？” From this， we can see that the integration of cities and the countryside is a long process and needs a lot of preparation. If we rush for quick results， our society will become unstable and will not contribute to the orderly progress of urbanization.
Household register reform is imperative and only needs time to progress. It depends on local financial situation， settlement situation of migrant farmers and the progress of public service facilities construction to decide which cities to carry out household register reform first and which ones later.
People First -- Farewell to “Urban Poverty”
The starting point for household register reform is to guarantee that all people can enjoy equal rights and welfare. Human’s development is an important goal in urbanization construction. On the Poverty Reduction and Development Forum， Wang Yang， deputy prime minister， also pointed out that to develop new urbanization， people must be placed first. That is to say， rapid economic development is not the sole goal， we also need to actively guarantee the welfare and employment of rural population in cities in policy and make them really be incorporated into the cities.
Departure from people-oriented principle will lead to alienation of urbanization and aggravation of urban poverty. To promote urbanization in the process of industrialization is one of human’s greatest achievements. While during the process， people may become astray from the people-oriented direction and thus alienation is created.
The blind development of industry and cities may damage the harmonious relation between industrialization and urbanization. For cities， without the support of industry， people find it difficult to obtain employment and then the city will become a “poor city” “sleep city” and “empty city”. It is difficult for the assigned enterprises to be competitive for a long time without the support of high quality urbanization foundation. Consequently， enterprises cannot make the talents stay and industry development is unable to climb the technical commanding points. The inclusiveness of cities is very poor so that migrant people cannot integrate even for a long time. This leads to the obvious contradictions of their interest and benefits. Such development level of both industry and cities is low and tends to result in severe structural problem. That people gather towards cities originally is for the connivance of production and life and the improvement of production efficiency and life quality. However， disordered people gathering and the problem of city plan， construction and management have made production and life more and more inconvenient. The results are the too rapid increase of living cost， the insufficient supply of production services and life services， and the poor logistics flow of population and goods within cities and among cities.
Generally speaking， the minimum wage is much higher than the minimum living security. Last year in Beijing， the lowest wage was 435 Yuan while the minimum living security was 285 Yuan with a difference of 150 Yuan. According to the statistics of Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau， in recent years， the number of poor people in Beijing has been on the increase. The increased people are just the group called “new urban poverty”. They can afford the basic daily accommodation but cannot live a decent and dignified life. Occupying the lowest position in the social power structure， they are disprivileged， without money， with poor physical and psychological qualities and lack of resources of social relation. Poverty has deprived the possibilities of them having a decent and dignified social interaction in the prosperous modern metropolis.
According to statistics， if the number of migrant workers in cities is calculated as 10 million， 70% to 80% of them are impoverished. From this perspective， rural poor people have not disappeared but only moved into cities. Houkai Wei， researcher of The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Urban Development and Environment said that with the accelerating progress of China’s urbanization， urbanization does not only mean the increase of the number of city residents but the development must accommodate the relations of population to factors as employment absorption capability and urban public facilities. That is to say how to guarantee the life quality of rural migrant population.
In addition to that， in order to improve the life quality of urban migrant workers and make them say goodbye to urban poverty， first， government needs to increase investment in public services like housing， employment， education， health care， pension， subsidies for low-income groups and unemployment relief and thus to make farmers have the chances to have a sound development on the basis of their satisfaction of food and clothing. Second， farmers’ status needs a real change in the system to let them share the fruits of social and economic development. The Key to Urbanization -- “Poverty Eradication of Civilization”
Looking back at China’s poverty reduction program， great achievements have been made. The way of only using economic growth to help farmers get rid of poverty cannot meet the requirements of new urban development. For instance， migrant workers in cities are not covered by the employment assistance policy. What’s worse， due to lack of social protection， once they encounter employment shock， they will fall into a difficult position. A good example is that after financial crisis in 2008， a large number of farmers got laid off and returned home.
How to help farmers get incorporated into the urban security system and thus make them really achieve “poverty eradication”？ This question needs our government’s deep thought. Director Sangui Wang said： “Right now， the task of poverty eradication is not only to make food affordable for them but more importantly to guarantee their basic necessities of food， clothing， living and means of traveling.” The degree of migrant workers’ civilization also affects a city’s civilization degree. Key words closely related to migrant workers’ lives have caught people’s eyes， such as poverty eradication of knowledge， employment， information and welfare. According to Professor Meiyan Wang， “With the growing number of migrant workers， it is unfair to let floating population stay in the vacuum zone of the minimum living standards system. It will bring in a series of social problems. How to incorporate floating population into the relief scope of minimum living standards system is an important task faced by the government.”
If migrant workers’ employment， welfare and health care cannot get the basic guarantee， it will bring a lot of unstable factors and thus affect the achievements made by urbanization and poverty reduction. In addition to the government policy tendencies， how to improve farmers’ quality， make them rapidly integrated into city life and construct a civilized city are the most important issues at present. When talking about reform， director Sangui Wang said： “To help farmers achieve poverty eradication of culture， we must rely on education.” Professor Yining Li， director of Social Science Department of Peking University， also thinks that the role of education cannot be ignored. He said： “Education resources should be distributed balancedly to make a smooth flow of social communication channel which helps achieve the early poverty reduction and eradication In addition， the promotion of “the healthy development of urbanization and placing people first” has become the key topic of this Poverty Eradication and Development Forum. “Urbanization” is “the urbanization of people” and people should be placed first. It can be said to be a common view that “urbanization” is not equivalent to “economization” and “industrialization”.
When talking about future development of urbane civilization， director Sangui Wang said： “Since China is in the process of rapid transition， it is inevitable to have the urbanization problems. But these problems have aroused our government’s great attention. China is engaged in the strategy of reform and poverty eradication， revising standards of poverty and improving migrant workers’ welfare system. Reforms must be carried out step by step and be suitable for China’s development path.
Postscript
In the edges of big cities and even in the cracks of city core areas are still living millions of floating people with the number of over 200 million and most of them are young adults. They migrate from other places， work hard to feed their families and save hard to make a contribution to city development， but they cannot enjoy the welfare of the cities. They come from the countryside to the cities to get rid of poverty but are worried that they may fall back into poverty at any time. But they still hold hopes for future urbanization and told our reporter that they hope they can be the real owners of the city one day.
On October 17， 2013， the 21st International Day for the Eradication of Poverty， Poverty Reduction and Development Forum was held in Beijing. Looking back at China’s urbanization of over 30 years， remarkable achievements have been made in poverty reduction， which is an important drive in realizing the global goal of “reducing the population of extreme poverty by half from 1990 to 2015”. However， in the process of economic transition and social transformation， new urbanization problems are also emerging： unbalanced development between urban and rural areas， sharp contradictions between urban development and resources and environment， the increasingly prominent problem of China’s urban poverty and the major challenges of urban living environment. These problems are also faced by lots of developing countries， especially by those middle income countries with the urbanization rate between 45% and 70%.
“Urban Poverty” in the Process of Urbanization
It can be said that urbanization successfully help China get rid of poverty. According to the latest data of World Bank， in recent decades， China has made great achievements in getting rid of poverty with the rate of China’s extreme poverty population of the world extreme poverty population dropping from 43% in 1981 to 13% in 2010. In fact， China’s extreme poverty population is mostly distributed in rural areas. Urbanization has brought a large number of rural population to urban areas and thus the rural areas have made a great achievement in getting rid of poverty. However， how’s the situation of those migrant workers？ Does living in a city mean getting rid of poverty and being a member of the city？ The questions have aroused peoples’ great attention to the rural people living in cities. Especially with the publicizing of unemployment， the unsound welfare system and the trend of counter urbanization resulted from a large number of migrant workers returning home， all these have made the increasingly prominent problem of “urban poverty” in the process of urbanization more emergent.. According to Meiyan Wang， professor of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences， urban poverty population mainly includes two categories. One is the poverty population of urban residents and the other is the poverty population of the floating population migrating from the countryside to city. Since the reform and opening-up， especially since the 1990s， with the gradual demolition of the various systems blocking the free flow of labor， a large number of rural labors have come into cities for employment. The migrant workers， compared with the local urban people， have a lower income， worse living environment， lesser coverage of social insurance and worse social welfare and service. From this perspective， although those people have gotten rid of rural extreme poverty， they have formed “urban poverty” again.
Poverty Standards should be Multidimensional
China has begun to reconsider the standards and meaning of poverty since the emergence of “urban poverty”. Since the beginning of 1980s， the Chinese government has begun to adopt the rural poverty line set up by National Bureau of Statistics and made it the standard of identifying the rural poverty population and rural poverty rate. The rural poverty line is established on the concept of living poverty and this line is used to identify the group living in poverty. Sangui Wang， director of the antipoverty problem research center of Renmin University of China， said in an interview with reporters that right now， China’s poverty standards mainly use economic incomes as indicators and absolute poverty as benchmark.
According to statistics， China’s latest poverty line has been significantly raised to net income of 2，300 Yuan of farmers per capita. Media has said that China’s poverty standard is the closest to the international poverty line of World Bank ever， that is to say it is closer to the poverty line of 1.25 dollars a day per capita set up by World Bank. Yet change in numbers is only the first step. The outside world is hoping to see how the rapidly developing China can help over 100 million poverty population really get rid of “1 dollar life”.
The currently adopted poverty standard does not include factors of other dimensions. For example， the newly emerged urban poverty population has not been listed into the scopes of poverty standards. Professor MeiyanWang told the reporter： “Income is only one factor of the poverty of floating people. For a better living and development， other than incomes， people also need education， medical care and living environment， etc. Although migrant rural workers have got rid of absolute living poverty， the conditions of their consumption， social security， living and education do not look good. How to shift from economic poverty eradication to poverty eradication of knowledge， consumption， culture and quality will become the top priority in making poverty eradication strategy in the future. And Director Sangui Wang has also said that poverty standards in the future will shift from the single dimension of economic incomes to the multidimensional measurement to accommodate the development trend of future urbanization. Policy orientation should protect the basic welfare of rural migrant workers and take into account of the group’s development status to better able to solve urban poverty problems and ensure the achievements of poverty eradication. The Cause of “Urban Poverty”-- Binary Household Registration System is the Key
According to Yining Li， director of Social Sciences of Peking University， floating population in poverty are not qualified to apply for urban subsistence allowances and rural subsistence allowances basically are not able to cover them. Thus， the floating population is in the vacuum zone of poverty allowances.
The key issues of urbanization are what industry farmers should take after they turn into city dwellers and whether the basic welfare and public service can meet their requirements. These issues are the core of the reform. If these issues cannot be solved and the conditions cannot be provided， urbanization will only be formality or even worse lead a large number of farmers into more sever poverty conditions and society will fall into a more uneven wealth gap. In the 2013 Poverty Reduction and Development Forum， Vice Premier Wang Yang also said that the quality of China's urbanization is not high. There are still unreasonable points to be corrected. Urbanization may also lead to the reattribution to poverty of certain areas and the floating population.
The essential cause for the reattribution to poverty of the floating population is their relatively low absolute incomes. Besides， due to the relatively worse social security condition and their uncertain expectations of the future， the floating population’s consumption level is relatively low.
For example， most of the floating population has not bought their own houses. Their living conditions and environment are very poor. Lots of floating population are not able to bring their children to cities with them and can only leave them stay in their rural homes to become stay-at-home children. Those who take their children with them can only afford for their children to go to schools for migrant workers’ children or city schools of poor quality. Besides， the floating population does not have urban household registration and thus cannot enjoy the same social welfare and public service as city residents.
Professor Meiyan Wang said： “Carrying out radical household register reform is the most fundamental way to make the floating population enjoy equal social welfare and public service as urban residents.” According to relevant information， cities of different sizes and development levels vary a lot in difficulty and progress of the household register reform. Overall， the household register system has not made substantial reform. Besides the functions of registering and managing population and household register are also closely related to social welfare and public service. Why does the Urban-rural Dualism still Exist？
Professor Yining Li explains： “If household register is suddenly changed from dualism to monism， there will be no obstacles for population flow between the countryside and cities. If millions of farmers migrate into city， the city order will be a disaster. Likewise， if city people know they can freely migrate into the countryside and then move to the countryside to acquire the houses of those farmers who have poured into cities what should we do about this？” From this， we can see that the integration of cities and the countryside is a long process and needs a lot of preparation. If we rush for quick results， our society will become unstable and will not contribute to the orderly progress of urbanization.
Household register reform is imperative and only needs time to progress. It depends on local financial situation， settlement situation of migrant farmers and the progress of public service facilities construction to decide which cities to carry out household register reform first and which ones later.
People First -- Farewell to “Urban Poverty”
The starting point for household register reform is to guarantee that all people can enjoy equal rights and welfare. Human’s development is an important goal in urbanization construction. On the Poverty Reduction and Development Forum， Wang Yang， deputy prime minister， also pointed out that to develop new urbanization， people must be placed first. That is to say， rapid economic development is not the sole goal， we also need to actively guarantee the welfare and employment of rural population in cities in policy and make them really be incorporated into the cities.
Departure from people-oriented principle will lead to alienation of urbanization and aggravation of urban poverty. To promote urbanization in the process of industrialization is one of human’s greatest achievements. While during the process， people may become astray from the people-oriented direction and thus alienation is created.
The blind development of industry and cities may damage the harmonious relation between industrialization and urbanization. For cities， without the support of industry， people find it difficult to obtain employment and then the city will become a “poor city” “sleep city” and “empty city”. It is difficult for the assigned enterprises to be competitive for a long time without the support of high quality urbanization foundation. Consequently， enterprises cannot make the talents stay and industry development is unable to climb the technical commanding points. The inclusiveness of cities is very poor so that migrant people cannot integrate even for a long time. This leads to the obvious contradictions of their interest and benefits. Such development level of both industry and cities is low and tends to result in severe structural problem. That people gather towards cities originally is for the connivance of production and life and the improvement of production efficiency and life quality. However， disordered people gathering and the problem of city plan， construction and management have made production and life more and more inconvenient. The results are the too rapid increase of living cost， the insufficient supply of production services and life services， and the poor logistics flow of population and goods within cities and among cities.
Generally speaking， the minimum wage is much higher than the minimum living security. Last year in Beijing， the lowest wage was 435 Yuan while the minimum living security was 285 Yuan with a difference of 150 Yuan. According to the statistics of Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau， in recent years， the number of poor people in Beijing has been on the increase. The increased people are just the group called “new urban poverty”. They can afford the basic daily accommodation but cannot live a decent and dignified life. Occupying the lowest position in the social power structure， they are disprivileged， without money， with poor physical and psychological qualities and lack of resources of social relation. Poverty has deprived the possibilities of them having a decent and dignified social interaction in the prosperous modern metropolis.
According to statistics， if the number of migrant workers in cities is calculated as 10 million， 70% to 80% of them are impoverished. From this perspective， rural poor people have not disappeared but only moved into cities. Houkai Wei， researcher of The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Urban Development and Environment said that with the accelerating progress of China’s urbanization， urbanization does not only mean the increase of the number of city residents but the development must accommodate the relations of population to factors as employment absorption capability and urban public facilities. That is to say how to guarantee the life quality of rural migrant population.
In addition to that， in order to improve the life quality of urban migrant workers and make them say goodbye to urban poverty， first， government needs to increase investment in public services like housing， employment， education， health care， pension， subsidies for low-income groups and unemployment relief and thus to make farmers have the chances to have a sound development on the basis of their satisfaction of food and clothing. Second， farmers’ status needs a real change in the system to let them share the fruits of social and economic development. The Key to Urbanization -- “Poverty Eradication of Civilization”
Looking back at China’s poverty reduction program， great achievements have been made. The way of only using economic growth to help farmers get rid of poverty cannot meet the requirements of new urban development. For instance， migrant workers in cities are not covered by the employment assistance policy. What’s worse， due to lack of social protection， once they encounter employment shock， they will fall into a difficult position. A good example is that after financial crisis in 2008， a large number of farmers got laid off and returned home.
How to help farmers get incorporated into the urban security system and thus make them really achieve “poverty eradication”？ This question needs our government’s deep thought. Director Sangui Wang said： “Right now， the task of poverty eradication is not only to make food affordable for them but more importantly to guarantee their basic necessities of food， clothing， living and means of traveling.” The degree of migrant workers’ civilization also affects a city’s civilization degree. Key words closely related to migrant workers’ lives have caught people’s eyes， such as poverty eradication of knowledge， employment， information and welfare. According to Professor Meiyan Wang， “With the growing number of migrant workers， it is unfair to let floating population stay in the vacuum zone of the minimum living standards system. It will bring in a series of social problems. How to incorporate floating population into the relief scope of minimum living standards system is an important task faced by the government.”
If migrant workers’ employment， welfare and health care cannot get the basic guarantee， it will bring a lot of unstable factors and thus affect the achievements made by urbanization and poverty reduction. In addition to the government policy tendencies， how to improve farmers’ quality， make them rapidly integrated into city life and construct a civilized city are the most important issues at present. When talking about reform， director Sangui Wang said： “To help farmers achieve poverty eradication of culture， we must rely on education.” Professor Yining Li， director of Social Science Department of Peking University， also thinks that the role of education cannot be ignored. He said： “Education resources should be distributed balancedly to make a smooth flow of social communication channel which helps achieve the early poverty reduction and eradication In addition， the promotion of “the healthy development of urbanization and placing people first” has become the key topic of this Poverty Eradication and Development Forum. “Urbanization” is “the urbanization of people” and people should be placed first. It can be said to be a common view that “urbanization” is not equivalent to “economization” and “industrialization”.
When talking about future development of urbane civilization， director Sangui Wang said： “Since China is in the process of rapid transition， it is inevitable to have the urbanization problems. But these problems have aroused our government’s great attention. China is engaged in the strategy of reform and poverty eradication， revising standards of poverty and improving migrant workers’ welfare system. Reforms must be carried out step by step and be suitable for China’s development path.
Postscript
In the edges of big cities and even in the cracks of city core areas are still living millions of floating people with the number of over 200 million and most of them are young adults. They migrate from other places， work hard to feed their families and save hard to make a contribution to city development， but they cannot enjoy the welfare of the cities. They come from the countryside to the cities to get rid of poverty but are worried that they may fall back into poverty at any time. But they still hold hopes for future urbanization and told our reporter that they hope they can be the real owners of the city one day.