Promoting Family Planning with Quality Services for Reproductive Health

In order to keep a low fertility level, it is necessary to continue the present family planning policy and follow the effective working principles in implementing population and family planning program. The population regulation and management system should be introduced in line with the socialist market economy. The grassroots work should be intensified and favorable conditions actively created so that the population and family planning program can be integrated with the community management system and the comprehensive service network. Priorities should be given to the family planning program in the central and western rural areas so that a balanced regional development can be realized. It is also necessary to reform and improve the population management system of the program objectives, so that the way of thinking and the working style with regard to the family planning program can be improved.

Quality services should be greatly promoted. Emphasis should be put on information, education, communication, contraception and regular services. It is necessary to disseminate knowledge on science and offer quality services to people in their daily life and childbearing matters, so as to meet their needs in family planning and reproductive health, thus promoting human development in a comprehensive way.

It is also necessary to develop industries related to reproductive health. Quality of the products for reproductive health should be improved, transformation of high-tech achievements speeded up, and research on reproductive health enhanced with the establishment of industrial bases. With the product mix optimized, new technology and products should be introduced. Market management should be intensified and market behavior standardized.

Improving the Overall Quality of the Entire People of the Nation

In order to improve the quality of newborn babies, it is essential to improve the health of women and children by promoting the maternal and child health care. Knowledge on bearing and rearing better children should be publicized and supported by pre-marital medical check-up, antenatal diagnosis, genetic counseling, prevention and treatment of newborn babies' diseases, and other preventive technical services. Pregnant and prenatal care should be improved, and hospitalized delivery and breast-feeding encouraged. In this way, the maternity and child health care can be improved with birth defects reduced.

In order to improve the people's health, it is necessary to strengthen construction of the rural health service networks based upon the primary health care clinics. Medical security system at various levels should also be established and improved. It is also necessary to conduct health education among farmers, with a view to improving their sense of health and the ability of self-health care. Physical exercises should be widely promoted for the sake of the people's health. Efforts should be made to improve the people's living environment and conduct psychological consultations so as to improve their physical and mental health. Health services should be enhanced in the periods of adolescence, pregnancy, maternity, menopause and old age so that people's living standard and their quality of life are improved. Strenuous efforts should be made to check the spreading of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

In order to raise the people's educational level, it is essential to develop basic education, vocational education, adult education and education for the aged. The rate of illiteracy should be further reduced. The right to education of the minors, women, ethnic minorities, the handicapped and the poverty-stricken people should be protected. The reform of education should be further carried out alongside with the promotion of quality education, thus improving the sense of creation and the ability to deal with actual things. The nine-year compulsory education and anti-illiteracy campaign among the young and the middle-aged should be continued so that senior middle school education and education of higher learning can be expanded. The system of continuing education should also be improved so that a life-long educational system could be gradually established.

In order to raise the people's ideological and moral standards, it is necessary to enhance the people's sense of law and concept of rule by law. Outmoded regulations and bad habits as well as old backward ideology should be changed and superstitions discarded. At the same time, healthy values, moral standards, good public opinions on culture and social practices are to be encouraged. Great importance should be attached to the healthy development of youngsters by providing them with colorful and meaningful cultural and educational activities. The young people's understanding of morality should be strengthened so that their improper behaviors could be avoided.

Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Women and Children

Women's rights to work should be safeguarded. They should enjoy the equal rights with man in business management and operation. Women's economic status should be enhanced, and their fields of work expanded so that they enjoy more working opportunity and higher quality of work. We insure women's rights to get proper payment, to have holidays, to enjoy good working conditions and social security and to be protected in special labor.

Safeguarding the political, social, and cultural rights of women. Efforts should be made to realize the equality between men and women and optimize the environment for women's development by eliminating discrimination against women; safeguard women's rights to participate in political and social affairs and to receive education; encourage women's self-esteem, self-confidence and independence, creating conditions for their participation in management and decision-making process; promote a new type of family relations by reducing the burden of housework for women. Protect the special interests of the adolescents, the elderly and disabled women; and crack down on crimes such as violence, trafficking and prostitution, insuring the personal safety and property rights of women.

Safeguarding women's rights to childbearing in accordance with the law. Efforts should be made to enhance women's understanding of health care and guide their ideas on marriage and childbearing; safeguard women's rights of marriage, family and childbearing and the rights during the period of menses, pregnancy and maternity; strengthen the publicity and education of man's role and responsibility in carrying out family planning and raising children and improve women's rights of decision making in family; held health check-up, prevention and treatment of reproductive tract infections to women on a regular basis, insuring much-needed lifelong medical service for women at different stages of their life. Meanwhile, efforts should be made to cover the cost of contraception, fertility regulation, and childbearing by pooling various capital resources; and insure preliminary health care and reasonable subsidy for women in their childbearing period. Any discrimination against women giving birth to female baby or women of infertility is forbidden.

Helping women relieve from their poverty. To carry out scientific and technical training should be carried out for women to improve their ability to wipe out poverty. Care should be taken to the orphaned or disabled girls and single elderly women with no legal guardian, no working ability and means to make a living both in urban and rural areas.

Safeguarding the rights and interests of children. Efforts should be made to safeguard children's rights to subsistence, development, be protected, and participate by optimizing children's living environment; ensure the all-round development of children by cultivating both their mind and body. The whole society should be mobilized to help girl child, disabled girls, children in single parent families and in poverty, and street children. Any action of maltreating, drowning and discarding girls is forbidden, and such crimes as mistreatment and trafficking of children ought to be severely punished.

Optimizing Labor Resources

Pressing ahead with urbanization. Efforts should be made to strengthen construction of urban infrastructure and service section, enhance the quality of urban construction and development, and optimize urban industrial structure. Special efforts should be made to stress the development of small and medium-sized cities, improve the function of regional central cities, and develop the area surrounding large cities. A plan should be mapped out for small towns, cities and villages reasonably distributed. Regional economic and cultural centers will be exploited to build a nationwide system coordinated development of small towns and cities, medium-sized and large cities.

Promoting orderly migration of people. Efforts should be made to set up a unified, open, competitive, and orderly labor market; reform the residence registration policy in cities and towns, and gradually change the policy concerning change in residency in large and medium-sized cities, so that the rights of people to move and chose jobs freely can be guaranteed and the redistribution of human resources between cities and countryside and among various regions can be realized; and provide various services for migratory people by reforming the management system and setting up efficient management network based on where the migratory people live and work.

Increasing employment opportunities. Reform labor system and expand employment opportunities and improve the job structure. Further develop labor-intensive industries and actively develop collective and private enterprises so as to provide more jobs. Set up labor system of different stages, and promote flexible and varied forms of employment. Develop labor market, consummate employment services, strengthen job training, and set up a market-oriented labor system. Set up a social security system that will cover all the working people and develop a favorable social environment conducive to the self-development of the working people.

Reducing Poverty

Implementing the strategy for the development of the western regions. The policy of slow-down population growth, enhancement of population quality, equitable distribution of population, and the development of human resources should be incorporated into the said strategy so that a coordinated development of economy and population can be reached. Measures should be taken for the east to help the west, for cities to help the countryside, and for developed regions to help the underdeveloped areas. The policy of helping the poverty-stricken people should be made in accordance with the reasons of poverty in different times and regions. The goal should be switched from relieving the poverty-stricken people of lack of food and clothes to helping improve the level of social and economic development of poverty-stricken area. A special policy should be implemented to help the impoverished regions improve their capability for self-development by providing fiscal subsidies, project investment, developing science, technology and education, improving ecological environment, and exporting labor.

Reducing the population living under poverty line in countryside. Efforts should be made to strengthen the work of relieving poverty by developing economy, science and technology, education, and family planning. The poverty alleviation program should focus on helping the people with the lowest income and the poverty-stricken regions with relatively dense population by improving conditions for living and production, increasing the role of science and technology in agricultural development, and producing market-oriented products and expanding the market. We will realize the goal of popularizing education, improving the level of medicare and the quality of people, and strengthening the ability of personal development. Social security system can be set up gradually in regions with good conditions so as to reduce the rate of falling back to poverty again.

Preventing pauperization of urban citizens. We will gradually set up and consummate poverty-relief system in cities and carry out the project of reemployment by expanding the ways of employment. We will consummate the basic insurance for the elderly, health care, unemployment insurance and the system of insuring basic living standard for city residents; widely set up working safety insurance and reproduction insurance to relieve the working risks; set up working rehabilitation system to help the injured workers regain the ability to work; set up a social security network of various levels, by encouraging people to help each other and engage in charity, and develop commercial insurance.

Guarantee the rights of the elderly

Establishing and improving the elderly support system. The old-age welfare service system should be based on the family supply, supported by the community welfare service and supplemented by the social welfare organizations. We will set up and improve the basic insurance system for the elderly in the cities and towns while mainly adhering to family-based insurance of the elderly in the rural areas. Meanwhile, we should further upgrade the social assistance as well as the "five-guarantee" supply mechanism focusing on guaranteeing food, clothing, housing, medicare and burial service; and gradually establish insurance system combining the country, society, family and individual so as to promote the wholesomeness and the life quality of the old people.

Creating the sound social environment for protecting the rights and interests of the aged. Efforts should be made to set up and improve the policies, regulations and laws for protecting the rights and interests of the old people, strengthen the supervision by law-enforcement, and fight against the unlawful behavior such as abusing, forsaking and persecuting the old people; carry forward such Chinese traditional virtues as respecting and loving the aged, ensuring their access to the economic supply, medical care, appropriate treatment, study and education, cultural entertainment while providing the old people with a pleasant, warm and peaceful living environment. The old people should be encouraged to learn science and culture, give full scope to their potentials participating into the social life, and cultivate independence and self-assistance.

Striving to develop industry for the elderly. Efforts should be made to study and develop the products that meet the material and cultural needs of the old people, encourage and lead the development of the market centering on the old-age household consumption; develop the old-age insurance socialized service by industrializing the establishment and development of the social service facilities and network; adopt some preferential measures with regard to taxation and loans to raise funds in a multiple way to develop the industry for the elderly.

Improve the Ecological Environment for Human Settlement

Strengthening people's awareness of the coordinated development of population, resources and environment. Efforts should be made to promote the all-round layout of slow-down population growth, environmental protection and resource exploitation to enhance the three above-mentioned factors' support for the economic development, change people's traditional way of thinking and behavior, and take measures such as "putting prevention first, making those who cause pollution to be responsible for treating it and strengthening environmental management" to put an end to the situation in which environment is deteriorating and improve urban and rural environment. Measures should be taken to improve the economic compensation system for paid use of the natural resources and the renewal of resources, enhance the comprehensive use rate of resources and economic profits, stop the destructive exploitation of natural resources, alleviate the controversy between the explosive population, the economic growth and the limitation of the resources.

Altering the way of life and production. The over-consumption of resources, heavy-pollution, unsustainable way of life and production should be changed to make way for a resource-saving and environmentally-friendly consumption structure and way of production in favor of the sustainable development.

Protecting the eco-environment in key areas. Efforts should be made to specially protect and improve the ecological environment where human and environmental resources clash sharply. With the city's functional areas built scientifically and rationally, sewage and garbage will be disposed centrally, and clean energy will be adopted to help minimize air pollution. Land, the arable land in particular should be used reasonably and economically. Strong measures will be taken to strengthen the building of the urban environmental infrastructure, regulate industrial structure and lay-out, shun the unpromising way of "first pollution, last treatment", strengthen the prevention and control of the pollution in major river valleys to ensure the security of the drinking water of the inhabitants. Measures should be taken to stop predatory development, and return what have been seized from lakes, forests and grasslands to them, push forward the work of planting trees and grass, treat soil erosion, prevent and control the desertification, establish ecological agriculture, strengthen the protection of natural resources such as arable land, water, forest, grassland and bio-diversity conservation.