10 years, 109 objectives

China's State Council recently formulated the Program on the Development of Chinese Women (2011-2020) and the Program on the Development of Chinese Children (2011-2020), establishing 109 development goals and relevant measures for women and children. The programs outline development targets in a range of fields, from education and social security to decision-making and management.

Focusing on children's health

The Program on the Development of Chinese Children (2011-2020), outlines 14 major objectives in terms of improving the health of the nation's children.

Priorities include: Reducing the rate of birth defects, particularly those defects that lead to life-long disabilities and lowering the mortality rates of infants and children below five years to 10 and 13 percent respectively. Ensuring that 95 percent of children are covered by the state's immunization program and raising the proportion of students who reach the National Students' Physical Health Standard. Reducing the incidence of behavioral problems and mental disease, mitigating the impact of pollution on children and increasing knowledge of reproductive health are also targets of program.

In order to fulfill these objectives, the program puts forward a series of strategies and measures, such as increasing spending on women's and children's health and promoting the construction of a health and information service system devoted to these groups.

Social security development for women and children

Apart from simply achieving numerical targets in terms of reducing mortality rates, the programs attach great importance to the development of a broader social security system.

The Program on the Development of Chinese Children (2011-2020) has set 8 objectives in the field of children's welfare: Chief among them is the transformation of the current supplementary care system into a universal welfare system. Special attention will also be given to the medical care given to rural and impoverished children.

The Program on the Development of Chinese Women (2011-2020) aims to improve the social security system related to childbirth by making sure that all employers provide women with birth insurance. The program also stipulates that the basic medical insurance system should be expanded to cover women in both urban and rural areas.

More opportunities for women to participate in decision making and management

Apart from women's development in the field of childbirth and health the program also seeks to ensure that women will have a greater say in "decision making and management". Crucially, the Program on the Development of Chinese Women (2011-2020) states that the leadership of local government bodies above the county-level must have more than one female cadre.

The decision making and management targets also states that the proportion of women in all China's major governing bodies should be increased. The program stipulates that more than 30 percent of the members of village committees should be women, while 10 percent of village committees should be headed by female chiefs, and 50 percent of the members of neighborhood committees should be women.