Wang Taiyuan, a noted hukou expert with the Beijing-based China People's Public Security University, blames the rigid hukou system for causing inefficient distribution of resources, with an excessive focus on urban areas.

The system enables urban residents to have greater privileges. In Beijing for example, it is easier for those holding a Beijing hukou to matriculate at universities than people from elsewhere in China.

"A huge gap in public service access between local urbanites and migrants has led to migrants becoming marginalized. This exclusion ultimately poses a challenge to social stability," said Lu Jiehua, a sociology professor at Peking University.

While the hukou system has failed to stop the influx of rural residents into the cities, it has also impeded their integration into the areas where they now live.

"Hukou reforms would allow China to channel labor to where it is most needed, rather than to areas most popular among the labor pool," Duan said.

China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) lays out a target of setting up a mechanism to offer equal public services to people in urban and rural regions. Experts on social affairs believe equality in the availability of education and medical services will reduce the desire of rural residents to move to urban areas.

"This requires that the government reform the current hukou system and establishes a unified welfare system to cover urban and rural residents," said Dang Guoying, a researcher with the Rural Development Institute of the CASS.

The State Council's reform guideline also proposes the creation of a unified hukou system, granting equal access to public services for both urban and rural residents.

The distribution of public resources between urban and rural areas should be balanced to improve living standards and working conditions in rural areas, the guideline says.

It also calls for greater protection of the property rights of rural residents, saying that authorities are banned from forcing rural people who have migrated to cities to give up their village homes and contracted fields.

Xia Xueluan, a sociology professor at Peking University, said, "Since the social security rights of farmer-turned-workers are not fully guaranteed in cities where they are working and living, the government should closely protect their land rights."

Meanwhile, the guideline says that efforts should be continued to control the population of major cities, including those directly under jurisdiction of the Central Government, many of which are already over-populated based on their existing infrastructure and services.

Census data showed that the population of Beijing topped 19 million in 2010, though the local government set its target population in 2020 at 18 million.

Of Beijing's 19 million people, migrants from other provinces and cities comprise 7 million, more than 70 percent of whom moved to the city for work or business reasons.

"Metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai already have extremely large populations, so it is important to guide the population flow into small and medium-sized cities," said Feng Ku, a researcher on urban development with the National Development and Reform Commission.

Regional reforms

In fact, many provinces and cities have begun reforming their household registration system in recent years. In some places, local hukou can be acquired if one buys property or invests a certain amount of money.

In June 2010, south China's Guangdong Province, which is home to more than 26 million migrant workers, launched the country's first migration scoring system for non-locals.

Under the system, migrant workers earn different points depending on their educational background, skill level, social security records and participation in charity activities such as donating blood. For example, a senior high school graduate will receive 20 points, compared to 80 points for a university graduate, and criminal records and other offending behavior will lead to a deficit in points.

A migrant worker will qualify for hukou in the city where he or she works or lives after earning 60 or more points. Those who qualify also confer registration to their spouses and children.

However, in Guangzhou, the province's capital with a resident population of more than 12 million, the threshold to attain a hukou is higher. A minimum of 85 points is required.

More than 17,000 migrant workers got urban hukou in Guangdong within a month after the system went effective.

Lin Wangping, Deputy Director of the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, estimated that 1.8 million migrant workers in the province would have their hukou status changed via the scoring system before the end of 2012.

"In addition to helping speed up the province's urbanization process, the scoring system aims to let more migrant workers share in local economic growth together with urban residents and help build a harmonious society," Lin said.

In July 2010, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality also launched its hukou reform, with the aim of turning 3.38 million farmers into non-farmers by 2012 and 10 million altogether by 2020.

According to Chongqing's municipal regulations, rural residents who do business in the downtown areas of Chongqing for five years or in remote county seats for three years can apply for non-farming hukou.

In mid-November 2010, Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan Province issued a document saying the city would establish a unified hukou system that no longer categorizes residents into farmers and non-farmers by the end of 2012. Thus all residents of the city would be able to enjoy equal access to basic public services and social security programs.

On April 1, 2011, as one of the most important measures to reform its hukou system, Chengdu included all its migrant workers in local social security programs.

"This ensures migrant workers have the right to the same social security benefits as their urban peers," said Zhang Xiaojiang, Deputy Director of Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security. "From that time onward, Chengdu has not distinguished between rural and urban residents and the phrase 'migrant worker' no longer exists."

Given the reform measures now being introduced by local governments, Zheng Fengtian, Vice Dean of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at the Renmin University of China, suggests proceeding cautiously toward the eventual elimination of the hukou system.

"In reforming the hukou system, a slight move in one area may affect the entire situation," Zheng said. "It shouldn't be like a sweeping storm. We need to prepare in terms of taxation policies, job creation and social security coverage."

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