Women’s unpaid work and China’s anti-poverty policies

1. Women’s unpaid work and China’s anti-poverty policies

2. Poverty Reduction in China • China has made remarkable achievements in poverty alleviation since the beginning of economic reform in 1978. During 30 years, the number of people living in absolute poverty had been decreased from 250 million to 1.5 million (based on 2007 poverty line, 785 RMB per year). • Statistics released by the World Bank last year showed that over the past 25 years, China accounted for two thirds of the achievements in global poverty reduction. • Most of the achievement in poverty reduction is attributable to the rapid economic growth. As UNDP pointed out in its 2008 report, China experienced the fastest decrease in poverty rate even before the government’s anti-poverty projects came into being.

3. China’s current anti-poverty approach • A “two-wheel driven” anti-poverty strategy • Growth-oriented poverty alleviation since mid 1980s • Poverty reduction funds from both central and provincial governments to designated poverty counties and villages • Invest in infrastructure • Provide preferential loans to farmer household • Poverty line • Recent adjustment (2011): from 1274 to 2300 yuan/person*year, poverty head counts from 27 to 128 million. • The minimum living allowance system (Dibao) since 2007 • Provide subsidies to poor households • Dibao line • varies a lot across regions • Current average Dibao line: 4224 yuan/person*year (urban), 2264 yuan/person*year (rural); • average subsidies actually provided : 2868 yuan/person*year (urban), yuan/person*year (rural)

4. Progress in making anti-poverty policies responsive to women’s needs • 1. Local governments are required to have a statement of “helping impoverished women” in their anti-poverty plans. • 2. National Bureau of Statistics of China included gender-specific indicators in its rural poverty-monitoring annual report. • Women’s share in migrant workers; average wages of male and female migrant workers; average educational attainments, and sectoral distribution by gender • School enrolment rates of boys and girls.

5. Progress in making anti-poverty policies responsive to women’s needs • 3. Women-targeted anti-poverty measures • Rural micro credit projects were targeted to poor women during 1994-2002. • Other special anti-poverty projects for women: • “Spring Bud Project” (“春蕾计划”) which helps poor young girls return to school; • “Sunshine Project” (阳光工程”) which offers skill training to rural women before they leave for cities in search of employment; • “water cellar for mothers” (“母亲水窖“) which helps women in drought areas build water cellars.

6. Women’s needs are not integrated into China’s current anti-poverty policies • The double burdens of Chinese women • 68% women participate in the labor force, making up 44% of Chinese total labor force (2010). • Women’s average number of paid work hours is 30.7 per week (2008). • They on average spend 27.3 on unpaid work per week, 16.7 hours more than men. • Their total working hour is 58 per week, 5.4 hour more than men’s. • Focusing on income or consumption, China’s current anti-poverty policies largely ignore women’s needs, most of which are connected to the fact that women bear the main responsibility of unpaid work.

7. Ignorance of unpaid work in anti-poverty policies • The official threshold for minimum living allowance (Dibao line) may fail to identify people, esp. women in de facto poverty who • spend long hours working, therefore live under great stress or in poor health status • Don’t have time to produce sufficient household goods to meet family needs

8. Ignorance of unpaid work in anti-poverty policies • Ignoring women’s burden of unpaid work, gender-neutral social policies often lead to greater poverty of women • Not taking women’s family responsibility into account, some anti-poverty projects aiming at income increase in fact add to women’s double burden and harm their health: micro credit program, agricultural technology promotion plan, etc. • Pension system: almost entirely linked to labor market performances, the gender bias in paid work will translate into gender gap in old-age security. Because women outlive men by about 5 years, this leads to greater poverty of elderly women. • Social labor security system: only workers in former sector are secured. Women in migrant labor force who are unemployed or working in the informal sector now make up the majority of city poor.

9. Integrating unpaid work in poverty reduction programming • Developing multi-dimensional, gendered indicators to measure well-being • Integrating time into income poverty threshold/Dibao line • Introducing gender perspective into design, implementation, participation, monitoring and evaluation of anti-poverty projects • Reforming pension system and giving elderly poor women more effective assistance • Integrating social labor security and minimum living allowance systems, alleviating the gap between rural and urban area

10. Challenges • Traditional culture/social convention: gender inequality and women’s status are not really regarded as important issues • Low level of women empowerment: women are not really the decision makers and active participants of anti-poverty policies • Lack of gendered statistics: difficulties in developing gendered indicators and doing in-depth research