Farmers to residents: equality after turning around

Beijing recently issued the "opinions on the implementation of further promoting the Reform of the Household Registration system", abolishing the distinction between the nature of agricultural hukou and non-agricultural hukou and uniformly registering as resident hukou. At this point, all provinces across the country have issued household registration system reform plans to abolish the distinction between agricultural hukou and non-agricultural hukou.

This is a great progress in history: in the sprint of building a well-off society in an all-round way, we should resolutely break the dual household registration system in urban and rural areas and gradually solve the problem of comprehensive national treatment for farmers.

Under the urban-rural dual household registration system, "farmer" is not only a professional identity, it also means economic identity, legal identity, social identity. A piece of household registration separates urban and rural residents from various fields and treats them differently. Farmers cannot enjoy the same treatment as urban residents in terms of employment, medical care, education and so on.

The unbalanced and uncoordinated development between urban and rural areas is still a prominent contradiction in China's current economic and social development and a major problem that must be solved in building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and accelerating socialist modernization. To solve the problem fundamentally, we must break the dual structure of urban and rural areas and promote the integration of urban and rural development.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as its general secretary has attached great importance to rural work. The General Secretary has stressed many times that "whether we are well-off or not depends on our fellow villagers." On July 30, 2014, the State Council issued the opinions on further promoting the Reform of the Household Registration system, and various localities issued relevant household registration reform policies one after another, and designed the system to eliminate the dual household registration system in urban and rural areas and give farmers comprehensive national treatment.

From "farmer" to "resident", there is a big difference in one word, but to change from words to substance, more efforts are needed, more follow-up policies are needed to keep up, and relevant departments need to work together.

For example, after farmers become residents, how can they get equal public services and rights and interests with urban residents in the areas of employment, education, medical care, social security, housing and so on? For example, how to integrate the financial investment in urban and rural public infrastructure construction to make up for the shortcomings of rural infrastructure? For example, in view of the rural land problem worried by rural residents after the cancellation of agricultural hukou, how to further deepen the reform of rural land, through the system of confirming the right of land and the same price of the same land, to realize the "right" of the same land and obtain land income? so that they can fairly share the fruits of modern development?

On the land of China, a magnificent modernization process is advancing. Former farmers and today's residents, whether they live in rural areas, are migrating to cities or have settled in cities, they all yearn for: well-intentioned policies can bring them a heavy sense of achievement and enable them to participate in the modernization process and share the fruits of modernization on an equal footing.