China's huge army of migrant workers may soon be guaranteed seats in the
nation's top legislature, where they will be able to voice their concerns and
complaints, if proposals for representation quotas are passed.
At the ongoing annual National People's Congress session, a draft resolution
on the election of deputies was submitted to lawmakers for deliberation on
Thursday, stipulating provinces and municipalities should set NPC deputy quotas
for large populations of rural migrant workers.
"It is a remarkable event in the development of China's political democracy,"
said Han Dayuan, a law professor at the People's University in Beijing.
China has about 150 million migrant workers in cities, but they have no
representation in the country's top legislature, the National People's Congress
(NPC).
With their comparatively low status in cities, migrant workers face many
problems such as delayed payments and their children's schooling.
Dai Quanming, a migrant-worker deputy in east China's Zhejiang Province,
submitted two bills on the compulsory education of the children of migrant
workers and the requirement of equal pay for equal work to the annual session of
the Ningbo City People's Congress.
"I will try to voice the demands and wishes of migrant workers, " said
46-year-old Dai, from central China's Henan Province, who has been working in
Ningbo as a migrant laborer for 15 years and was elected a deputy of the migrant
workers in Ningbo's city legislature early this year.
The election of migrant workers as local lawmakers began in 2002 in Zhejiang
Province, when Zhu Linfei was the first migrant worker to be elected as a deputy
in Yiwu City People's Congress.
Zhu said she knew the needs of migrant workers and had been working hard to
help solve their problems.
Southern cities like Shenzhen and Dongguan, Guangdong Province, also have
lawmakers representing their large numbers of migrant workers.
The province has already put the election of migrant workers as NPC deputies
on the government agenda, according to government sources.
"The awareness of political rights has been promoted among migrant workers,"
said Sun Heng, founder of an arts group for young migrant workers in Beijing.
"We may not have the oratory or writing skills to make our words sound
impressive, but our own deputies are the most genuine representative for us,"
Sun said.
