A Chinese citizen must present a hukou to avail of social services. (Photo : Wikimedia)
There is the possibility of China extending hukou, the country's form of household registration, to 13 million unregistered citizens, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
On Sunday, Guo Shengkun, Minister of Public Security, presided over a meeting to discuss the proposal of giving hukou to the unregistered citizens of the country.
According to the meeting, registration is a fundamental right for all citizens. This right is endorsed by the constitution and the law.
There are 13 million unregistered people all over China, according to the National Population Census in 2010. This accounts for roughly 1 percent of the total population.
Without a hukou, a person cannot get access to public education and cannot be reimbursed for healthcare costs and other welfare benefits.
Parents who were only legally allowed to have one child under the old family planning policy cannot register their children after the first unless they pay a sizable sum of money.
More than 60 percent of unregistered citizens in China belong to this category victimized by the old policy, according to a 2014 research report by the Institute of Social Development at the National Development and Reform Commission.
Other unregistered people include abandoned children, those born out of wedlock and those with missing documents.
According to the research, unregistered people have a tendency to lack a sense of personal security, being excluded from the social security system. They also lack the legal documents that allow them to easily travel long distances, restricting population mobility.
The situation has been found to cause social instability and worsen social inequality due to some people being excluded from the hukou system, according to statements made by the Ministry of Public Security at the Sunday meeting.
The ministry publicized its intention to help unregistered people obtain their hukou, saying it is their right as citizens.
Ever since the Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2013, there have been several documents issued on hukou reform indicating intents to reform the system.
In 2013, the government relaxed the family planning policy, allowing couples to have a second child if at least one spouse did not have any siblings. This was further relaxed in October of this year, with the one-child policy being completely scrapped in favor of a blanket two-child policy.
