Chinese Premier Li Keqiang promises greater job security for migrant workers
- Pledge will be good news for Jizhi Gari and his parents, who have spent the past six months travelling the country in search of odd jobs
- China’s top official on poverty alleviation says that since the start of the year, the number of people classed as ‘living on the edge of poverty’ has risen by 380,000
For 19-year-old Jizhi Gari and his family from the Liangzhou prefecture of Sichuan province – one of China’s most poverty-stricken areas – the concept of job security is far from what they have experienced over the past six months.
The Jizhi family are members of the Yi ethnic minority group and hail from a tiny village deep in the mountains of Butuo county, where even in good times regular work is hard to come by.
Despite that, and their lack of formal education – Jizhi quit school several years ago and his parents can barely read – until recently they managed to survive on the money the teenager and his father, Jizhi Yousha, earned as casual labourers.
But as it became harder to make ends meet, in December, the family decided that the only way to survive was for not only the two men, but also wife and mother, Naibao Meramu, to take to the road.
So, after leaving three younger children – two boys in primary school and a girl in kindergarten – with an aunt, the trio set off in search of work, though with only basic skills and a limited education to offer, they knew their options would be limited.
“Farming and construction work is all we can do,” Jizhi Gari said.