More than 90 per cent of mainland residents think the country's hukou permanent-resident registration system should be changed, an online survey has found.
Of 11,168 people questioned in a week-long poll earlier this month by website Sina.com and the China Youth Daily social survey centre, 91.68 per cent of respondents said the system was in need of reform.
More than 53 per cent said restrictive policies attached to the system, such as limits on access to education, health care, employment and social insurance, should be eliminated. And more than 38 per cent said the system should be scrapped entirely.
The registration system, introduced in the 1950s to curb population growth in cities, gives urban and rural residents widely differing social welfare entitlements. Access to benefits also varies greatly between cities, depending on their regional economic development.
About 57 per cent of survey respondents said the system was important in getting their children into city schools, while more than a third said it was useful in accessing medical and unemployment insurance. Nearly 19 per cent of respondents said registration was needed if they wanted to buy houses or cars, while 18 per cent said it increased job opportunities.
Dang Guoying, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the China Youth Daily that a Beijing citizen earning less than 2,500 yuan a year could receive monthly subsidies as well as medical insurance, a pension and even low-cost housing. That was in contrast to the few benefits given to farmers living on the same income.