Family-planning efforts conducted by Chinese rural residents
voluntarily have become an important component of China's overall
family-planning program, according to Zhang Weiqing, minister in
charge of the State Family Planning Commission.
Speaking at the national work conference on family planning, which
concluded on Thursday, Zhang said China encourages voluntary family
planning activities in rural areas and has been trying to turn the
project from an administrative order into a voluntary choice among
the rural population.
The rights of people in deciding their family size should be
respected, said Zhang.
During the past five years, farmers in east China's Anhui Province,
where rural residents account for the majority of the provincial
population, have been encouraged to manage and supervise family
planning efforts by themselves.
The move has greatly enhanced the quality of local family-planning
endeavors and 85 percent of the population said they were satisfied
with the self-regulated method.
In
east China's Zhejiang Province where self-regulated family-planning
efforts have been implemented for many years, family-planning
awareness has become deeply rooted among the local rural
population.
Family-planning networks have been extensively established in
villages in southwest China's Guizhou Province, where directors are
elected in villages to supervise the work.
It
is an urgent task for the country's family-planning departments to
further popularize the task among China's vast rural population,
said Zhang Weiqing.
(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2003)