To prevent the SARS epidemic from spreading to the vast stretches
of rural China, one difficulty facing the government is to monitor
its roving migrant population. With the active participation of the
State Population and Family Planning Commission, the whereabouts of
a farmer, once he leaves home, is now traceable thanks to a new
information network.
The commission has recently opened a special SARS data reporting
network within its sector, which enables fresh data on
trans-provincial floating populations every three days. The
comprehensive and accurate changing data and analytic reports
provided by the network will give government departments at various
levels strong support for arranging SARS work in rural areas. Since
the information collection and distribution platform went into
operation on May 13, a total of 2,606 counties in the country have
begun to submit investigation data on trans-provincial migrant
populations directly to the network, accounting for 96 percent of
the counties required to make such reports (Tibet is excluded).
How then was the information system established? According to a
responsible official from the commission, this special network was
developed within a short period of time, based on previous
information systems on women of childbearing age.
The official said that the family planning sector had set up a
rather complete service network across the country. As an integral
part of the birth control endeavor in China, the network is
composed of 600,000 government officials working in the family
planning sector, 1.4 million special family planning workers at
village level, and 83 million of members of the population and
family planning associations.
At
the present critical moment in the prevention of the SARS epidemic
from spreading to rural areas and among the rural population, the
State Population and Family Planning Commission launched the
network, aiming to make full use of the sector's advantages in
organizational setup, network and information.
Since the special reporting network went into operation a week ago,
it has provided the state SARS prevention leadership organizations
with data, information and analytic reports on the floating
population three times. The data shows that a total of 4.5 million
people have flowed into rural areas trans-provincially from May 1
to 15. The number is accurately calculated village by village. The
data also shows the population outflowing from Beijing, Tianjin,
Hebei, Shanxi, Guangdong provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region has accounted for 52 percent of the total number of the
trans-provincial transient population in the country. They have
mainly flowed into Henan, Hunan, Anhui, and Hebei provinces. The
data also shows that most population flowing into Henan is from
Beijing and Hebei. Therefore, the SARS prevention work in Henan is
facing a severe test.
According to the person in charge, the family planning service
network has a wide coverage and close connection with the masses.
Therefore, it has advantages in publicity and education and the
advantages have been brought into play during the work of SARS
prevention. For example, family planning departments at all levels
have made full use of research organizations, publicity and
education centers, newspapers, magazines and population websites
within the system to carry out various publicity activities. These
enable scientific information on SARS prevention and relevant laws
and regulations to timely enter into every household in rural
areas. Meanwhile, they have closely cooperated with health and
epidemic prevention departments, making full use of their
advantages in information, network and statistical reports. They
have actively carried out consultation services and offered
visiting check services to every household. They have established
the monitoring system on migrant populations all over the country
in a timely fashion.
The person in charge said that according to the latest data, the
number of people flowing into rural areas is declining but slowly.
It means rural migrant workers returning home are decreasing and
those returning to cities increasing. She thinks it shows on the
one hand, the SARS control measures that the government has taken
are proper, increasing people's confidence. On the other hand, it
also indicates that the busy farming season in many regions has
concluded while some industries in the urban areas are back to
normal.
In
order to avoid the returning peak of rural migrant workers under
the conditions that the epidemic situation in the cities is very
likely to relapse, efforts will be made to encourage rural migrant
workers to postpone returning to the cities. Relative departments
are required to give guidance to those rural migrant workers
seeking jobs outside. The person in charge said that the work of
the network in the next phase will focus on the timely reporting
and analysis on the quantity of rural migrant workers outflowing
from rural areas and the direction of this outflowing.
(China.org.cn by staff reporter Hu Huiting, May 23, 2003)