Research On Family Planning Issues In Xi'an Migrants

The main part of social activities is population. It would be impossible to start any political, economic and cultural activities without the participation of the people. To promote the harmony in the whole society, we must rise to the challenge of balancing the relationships between population, natural environment and economic growth. In the past years, the contribution made by the transient population to the urban construction and economic development has been acknowledged by the whole society. However, the implementation of family planning policy on transient population has been met with hardships and problems that can not be overlooked. Certain issues, such as illegal birth, unplanned birth and the lack of maternity protection are particularly significant among this part of population, and that calls for higher level of management work when carrying out family planning programme in this group. There are two underlying causes behind these issues:firstly difficulties arise about the characteristics of this population group.most people find it difficult to embrace advanced notions on childbirth because the backwards ones are still popular; moreover, people tend to give birth without going through proper record registration and relocate chronically without settled existence. Secondly there are also loopholes in the family planning service delivery and programme management, such as the imperfect mechanism of the integrated management of the transient population, the inappropriate managerial approach adopted by the staff at the grass-root level and the lack of awareness of service at work. By improving the delivery of family planning service, we could on one hand, protect the legal rights of the transient population, help them forming the modern and advanced perception on childbirth and adjusting to life in the city. On the other hand it will be less pressure during the implementation of family planning policy to the transient population, and we could devote more effort to stablish the current low fertility rate, improving the quality of population and building up a harmonious society. As a result, I believe it is of great importance and realistic meaning that we conduct analysis and research about family planning issues in the transient population, discover deficiencies in family planning service delivery and programme management, and seek to find the causes and cures for the present situation.The data in this thesis comes from the350copies of questionnaire that issued to a sample of transient population in the city of Xi’an. By analyzing the basic information, childbearing condition, the amount of family planning service the respondents receive, and the current state of family planning service delivery and programme management, I intend to apply the knowledge from sociology and demology to find the causes and cures for the present situation.The thesis is divided into seven chapters:In the introduction chapter I am going to review the background study on the topic of family planning programme about the transient population, in which certain contents of the Chinese and foreign literature will be covered. Then I will present the academic approach and provide definition to some important concepts like migrant population, transient population and family planning.In the second chapter, I am going to introduce the relevant policies and legislations concerned with the implementation of family planning policy on the transient population in Xian. By conduct thoroughly interpretation into those regulations, I think it will be helpful to establish a clear initial understanding of work details and standards of family planning service delivery and programme management.In the third chapter I will go through the feedback from the previously mentioned questionnaires, focusing mainly on the basic information, childbearing condition, the amount of family planning service the respondents receive. It can be concluded that the transient population is generally undereducated, and prone to have additional births. Also, the transient population is found to process backward perceptions on childbirth, and they have only received limited amount of family planning information and service. More efforts need to be made by the related departments to raise the level of sanctification of family planning service among the transient population.In the fourth chapter, I will put forward the challenges that have been met in the family planning work, which includes the deficiencies in the service delivery and management of the family planning programme, and issues that arise from certain characteristics of the transient population.In the fifth chapter, I will seek to find the underlying causes of previously mentioned challenges from various aspects, such as institutional factors, the awareness of service, political mechanism and the characteristics of the transient population. And it can be concluded that the existence of "Hukou" system of household registration, the lack of awareness of service, inadequate two-way and comprehensive management mechanism, the lack of modern notion on childbirth among transient population and the imperfect understanding about the regulations and policies are all responsible causes.In the sixth chapter, I will put forward the suggestions and solutions to the above challenges, which includes perfecting comprehensive management mechanism and benefit-oriented mechanism, increasing publicities and improving the quality of service, helping transient population to build a advanced perception on childbirth and promoting self-management and self-service among the group.In the conclusion chapter, I will give a brief summary of the research results, and at the same time point out the parts in the thesis that still needs improvement in the future.