China fully protects economic interests of women: white paper

BEIJING - China fully protects the economic interests of women, promoting women's equal participation in economic development and equal access to the fruits of reform and development, said a white paper issued on Tuesday.

Significant progress has been made in alleviating poverty among women, said the white paper marking the 20th anniversary of the UN's Fourth World Conference on Women that was held in Beijing.

During the implementation of comprehensive poverty reduction strategies, China has given overall consideration to the impact of urbanization, aging, climate change and other social and market factors on poverty among women, and strengthened efforts to address such poverty, it said.

China has implemented a program for poverty alleviation through development in rural areas, making women a key focus of attention and giving priority to poverty alleviation projects for women when all other conditions are equal, striving to improve the development capacity of women and bringing more benefits to them as a group, said the paper.

The number of impoverished women has dropped by an enormous margin, and the severity of poverty of women has been continuously alleviated, it said, adding in nearly 600 poorest counties which are made the main targets of national poverty alleviation and development work, the poverty rate of the female population decreased from 20.3 percent in 2005 to 9.8 percent in 2010.

China has established a new-model social relief system, increasing efforts to protect impoverished women. In 2014, the numbers of women covered by subsistence allowances for urban and rural residents were 7.92 million and 18.26 million respectively, increasing by 2 million and 15.91 million, as compared to 2006, according to the paper.

The state has actively implemented a number of public welfare and charity programs for impoverished mothers, such as the program of relief for mothers suffering from breast cancer and cervical cancer, the comfortable housing project for impoverished rural single mothers, and the mother health express program, bringing help to sick women, poor single mothers and various other groups of mothers in need, the paper said.

To create favorable conditions for women's employment and career development, China has also implemented policies that enable women in positions as middle-ranking officials, senior professionals and technicians at state organs and public institutions to retire at the same age as their male counterparts, and policies to facilitate the growth of female scientists and promote equal employment opportunities for female college graduates, it said.

China improves the level of social security for women, including maternity, old-age, medical, unemployment and industrial injury insurances, according to the paper.