Being a second child can be rough, but being a second child in Beijing is a whole other issue. Because of China’s former ‘one-child policy’ and the hefty fines issued to parents of second children, there are now thousands of ‘illegal’ second children in the capital who don’t have hukou. However, earlier this week one district in Beijing started granting residency to some of these children – no questions asked, Caixin reports.
On Tuesday, a Beijing woman went into a Dongcheng police station to obtain hukou for her second child. Surprisingly she was not asked to show officials proof that she had paid a fine for having an additional child, nor was she asked to provide a certificate showing that she had been given permission to have her daughter.
“An officer at a police station in the district explained on the same day that his superiors issued an order that said people who had broken the old family planning rules did not have to show they had paid fines before getting a hukou,” Caixin reports.
As of 2013, there were at least 13 million undocumented children in China, and a great many of them reside in the nation’s capital. Because their parents were either unable or unwilling to pay the lofty fines (which can reach up to RMB300,000 in larger cities like Beijing) their kids don’t really exist – at least not officially speaking.
Second children who do not possess hukou are not entitled to a state education, subsidized health care or subsidized housing. Getting a job later in life is also a major hurdle for them since the don’t possess the official paperwork necessary for legally getting a job.
While this turn of events does offer a glimmer of hope to undocumented second children, it remains unsure whether or not this new regulation is here to stay or if it will catch on among the rest of Beijing’s districts.
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