Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph
Atlas
The homeless "anonymous" turned into a new citizen enjoying social security
The story of 193 homeless beggars settling in Tianjin
The assisted girl receives psychological counseling from a staff member (right) in the sandbox playroom. The photos in this group are all provided by the respondents
Zhu Na (first from left), a staff member of the Public Affairs Department of the Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau, handles the settlement procedures for the recipients at the Population Management Corps of the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau.
Staff help the elderly with meals.
A few days ago, the news of "193 homeless beggars settled in Tianjin" appeared on the hot search and became a hot topic of discussion among all parties. Some people are worried that this move will induce people to exploit policy loopholes, and many more praise the attitude and temperature of this megacity with a permanent population of more than 10 million in the urban area, so kind to this special difficult group.
And these "lucky people", who do not know where their homes live or have their exact names, do not show a feeling of joy. They often lack the ability to survive on their own, and even have barriers to normal communication and expression, so that it is particularly difficult for journalists to find an interviewee.
"No one can be less on the road to moderate prosperity." Tianjin does not forget to take care of these "nameless" people with only a series of rescue numbers, and transforms them from the "most marginalized, difficult and vulnerable special group" in society, the homeless vagrant beggars, into new citizens included in the corresponding social security system, and get rid of the dilemma of survival.
At 00:00 on November 1, 2020, it was the standard time point of the seventh national census. The 193 new citizens of Tianjin will leave their own pen for the first time in the census communiqué.
"Not only is there no name, but even age is estimated by measuring bone age"
Zhu Youqing, 9, is the youngest of the settlers and has his own name for the first time.
In order to allow these 193 homeless beggars to settle down smoothly, the tianjin rescue stations at all levels named the "nameless names" among them: the surname "Dang" from the rescue station in Binhai New Area, the surname "Ning" from the aid station in Ninghe District, and more stranded recipients from the Tianjin Aid Station became "Zhu Family" together with Zhu Youqing.
Tian Zhiguo, head of the juvenile protection section of the Tianjin Aid Station, told reporters that taking the name Zhu Youqing as an example, they "spent every word with thought" - the surname "Zhu" is homophonous with the "help" of the rescue, and it also has the meaning of blessing; the word "unitary" represents the year she received assistance, and the word "Qing" is derived from the name of the first staff member who received her. From this, she and the city that accepts her and cares about herself have a certain warm connection.
"To maintain a person's personal dignity, at least a name of his own." Tian Zhiguo, who has been responsible for managing the minor children in the aid station for many years, is even more deeply touched.
He still clearly remembers that the day Zhu Youqing was sent by the police station was November 22, 2017. At that time, some citizens reported that a wandering little girl had been found near the Golden Street Persuasion Field.
"She's dressed dirty, she can't speak, she just cries 'uh-huh,' and hides when she sees someone alive." Zhu Youqing, who was thin and small in front of Tian Zhiguo, was weak and was quickly sent to a designated hospital for nutritional supplement treatment. After being identified by doctors, she was diagnosed with intellectual disability.
"Not only does this child have no name, but even her age is estimated by measuring bone age, and she does not have any clues to find a family." The public security organs helped her to make a face recognition comparison, and also compared it on the anti-abduction website, but did not find any information. Tian Zhiguo recalled.
In the past three years, they have watched Zhu Youqing grow taller and fatter, and they are no longer as timid as in the past. Sometimes when she encounters familiar teachers and nursing staff, she will take the initiative to plunge into people's arms and call out "mom" vaguely. When taking the photo, she wrinkles her nose and smiles at the camera, and the upturned corners of her mouth make a brace on her face.
Everything is moving forward, but the road to finding relatives has not progressed. They pushed Zhu Youqing's messages in various media, asking her to receive special education and psychological courses provided by the social work team and volunteers together with other assisted minors, hoping that she could slowly recall some effective information.
As the days passed, Zhu Youqing still couldn't say the complete words, and his childhood memories became even more blurred. Homeless, she became the youngest recipient stranded in the aid station.
Although these wandering beggars settled in Tianjin have different life experiences and different misfortunes, most of them are not physically and mentally sound like Zhu Youqing, some of them suffer from intellectual disabilities, Alzheimer's disease, mental illness, and some people are physically disabled, unable to give effective information such as whose surname is and where they live.
Whether it is DNA comparison, face recognition comparison, or repeated information releases, they have not been able to help them find their families. Bian Erwu, who has been in the aid station for the longest time, has been unsuccessfully searching for relatives for 28 years.
"Because they have no identity, these homeless beggars who have been searching for relatives for a long time have become 'black households' outside the social security system based on household registration." Wang Yingmei, director of the Tianjin Municipal Social Welfare Management Office, said.
Although it is not the first, it has made a good start
In recent years, at the time of entering the decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, the problem of settling down these vagrant beggars who have no means of subsistence has long attracted the great attention of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. According to Wang Jinhua, director of the Department of Social Affairs of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as of the end of December 2019, a total of 13,899 people had been resettled nationwide.
The Tianjin Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have always attached great importance to the rescue of vagrant beggars, and set up a joint meeting mechanism to give high attention and all-round protection to the street rescue, epidemic prevention, medical treatment, and station life of the beggars.
In March 2020, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and 11 other departments jointly issued the "Notice on Carrying Out special actions to greatly improve the quality of rescue management services for vagrant beggars who have no means of subsistence", taking "centralized settlement and resettlement action" as one of the six important tasks.
In August, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Reforming and Improving the Social Assistance System, which clearly requires all localities to "do a good job in the settlement and resettlement of long-term stranded personnel, implement social security policies for qualified personnel", and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of every citizen to register their hukou according to law.
"As one of the four municipalities directly under the central government in the country, Tianjin has settled 193 stranded recipients at one time, walking in front of all localities and forming a good demonstration effect." Guan Xinping, vice president of the Chinese Sociological Society and professor at Nankai University, believes that the settlement and resettlement of a very small number of homeless beggars who have no means of subsistence reflects the determination of the party and the state to "leave no one behind and leave no dead ends" in terms of ensuring the people's livelihood.
At the same time, he frankly said that although the current settlement policy is more professional and scientific, it will still bring some new problems and need to be further explored and improved.
The reporter combed and found that as early as March 2016, Weihai City in Shandong Province had handled the settlement procedures for 35 homeless beggars, and since then, there have been similar reports in Taizhou, Jiangsu, Taoyuan, Hunan, Guangde and other places. Their policy basis is derived from the Opinions on Strengthening the Identification Inquiry and Care and Resettlement of Homeless Beggars and The Ministry of Public Security issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security on August 20, 2015.
The document clearly stipulates that for those who have been stranded for more than three months and still cannot identify their identity information, the public security organs should handle the settlement procedures, and the civil affairs departments should promptly include them in the scope of support for the special hardship personnel and implement the social assistance policy.
It can be seen that settling down for these homeless people is not the first of its kind in Tianjin, but for a megacity with high household registration benefits, it can be called a breakthrough and a good start.
In the nationwide special action to greatly improve the quality of rescue and management services for vagrant beggars who have no means of subsistence, the Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau, together with 10 committees and offices, has joined hands to solve the problem of the settlement and resettlement of these extremely poor people, and has introduced a system and policy for the settlement of vagrant beggars, refining the conditions for settlement, strictly settling down procedures, and establishing a long-term mechanism.
Professor Guan Xinping, who has lived in Tianjin for a long time, has visited several local aid stations and has an intuitive feeling for the service management of vagrant beggars. He said: "There are very few homeless beggars in Tianjin, and the significance of settlement and resettlement cannot be denied because the aid station temporarily meets the basic living needs of the beggars. ”
"Aid stations should assume a temporary rescue function. However, a very small number of people have entered the station, and because they cannot determine their identity and household registration, they have become a long-term problem, beyond the scope of temporary assistance, and should be included in the normal social security system. Guan Xinping explained.
For the most marginalized people to "pocket the bottom", this money should be spent
The media response was so enthusiastic that it seemed to exceed people's expectations and trigger discussions and thoughts from all sides.
"The maturity of a city depends on its openness and inclusiveness, and the temperature of a city is reflected in the improvement of the bottom security system." Wang Yingmei, who has long served as the director of the Tianjin Aid Station, deeply appreciates this.
Faced with the question of "whether settling so many beggars at once will mislead such people and increase local financial pressure", Wang Yingmei and her colleagues have calculated an account: Tianjin rescues about 7,000 homeless beggars every year, most of whom are temporarily trapped, lost and abandoned, and the vast majority of people return home in time after rescue, leaving about 600 people, because of intellectual disabilities, mental illness, disabled people and other reasons can not express identity information.
For these more than 600 people, the Tianjin civil affairs department launched a 5+1 family search model, with the help of the civil affairs national rescue management information system, the national rescue and family search network, new media clients, WeChat public accounts, traditional newspapers and periodicals and other diversified three-dimensional family search, and reported to the public security department for DNA comparison, face recognition comparison.
In the past three years, the rate of homeless beggars in Tianjin has been above 98%, which is at a high level in the country.
In fact, on the one hand, as the battle against poverty has entered the decisive stage, the number of poor people in China has been declining; on the other hand, due to the progress of scientific and technological means, the collection of electronic information by citizens has been continuously improved. Combined, homeless homeless beggars are declining across the country.
"These 193 long-term stranded people are the total number accumulated in Tianjin in the past 28 years, and according to our current home search rate, the number of stranded people in the future should be only single digits per year." According to Wang Yingmei, there is an 82-year-old man who found his family in only one and a half hours after the push of the WeChat public account. Since 2017, 219 people have found their families through this high resolution factor.
Guan Xinping, who has long studied social security policies, also affirmed Tianjin's approach: "To provide guarantees for the people in need, the government must invest certain financial resources, but this is the money that should be spent." The government's settlement of a very small number of people with special difficulties in the local area is a guarantee for meeting their basic living needs, and will not affect local finances and citizens' lives. ”
Tian Zhiguo believes that the introduction of a guarantee policy reflects the temperature of the city, and at the beginning of a new round of census, it takes determination and courage to integrate these marginal people who are outside the statistical caliber of urban and rural population into the urban development of Tianjin.
"Citizenship is political empowerment. Although they may not be aware of the significance of settlement based on intellectual problems, we as normal people have the obligation and responsibility to respect their fundamental rights. This is not only the attitude of the city, but also the temperature of the city, and it reflects the concept of people first and the reality of national progress. A staff member who has been involved in the rescue work for a long time concluded.
Li Zhanshan, the oldest of the settlers, is 94 years old this year. When he was first taken to the aid station 3 years ago, he could still say his age and name. After wandering outside for many years, he could no longer remember where his home was. Subsequent physical examinations revealed abnormal mental behavior, and the initial diagnosis was Alzheimer's disease.
At present, the elderly Li Zhanshan is being treated in Tianjin Designated Hospital. The public security organs conducted a population information search according to his name, but did not find consistent information, other information comparisons were not successful, and the relevant clues were denied one by one.
"He's been to the aid station longer than I've had.'"
Bian Erwu, who has been stranded for the longest time, is the 25th vagrant beggar rescued by the Tianjin Aid Station in 1992. The staff at that time gave him this name in this number.
This illiterate deaf-mute man has not provided any valid information about his family for 28 years. The staff tried their best to communicate with him, and even figured out a set of "native sign language" - such as pulling the earlobe to refer to the woman with earrings; the left and right hands were combined into an "O" shape on the eyes, referring to a person wearing glasses.
Bian Erwu occasionally remembered something, would draw a few circles on the paper, and the staff would go up to reason and identify for half a day, but in the end it was in vain. In 2016, the only time someone saw the information pushed by the Internet, they came to the Tianjin Aid Station to identify it on the ground, and it turned out that Bian Erwu was not the relative he was looking for.
"That time I compared a house to him with my hand, trying to tell him that he might be going home. He looked very happy, and he deliberately dressed well, but he did not expect that what he waited for was disappointment. Wang Peng, head of the placement education section of the Tianjin Aid Station, recalled.
Now, remembering Bian Erwu's lost eyes at that time, Wang Yingmei's heart was still uncomfortable, and his eyes were red halfway through the words: "Originally, he was happy, and he still had a whole collar..."
After four years, Wang Peng was explaining another happy thing to Bian Erwu - he used two index fingers to draw a palm-sized rectangle in the air, and then pulled out his ID card to compare to the other party, which means that before long, Bian Erwu will also have such a "small card" representing the rights and interests of citizens.
It was difficult for Bian Erwu to understand what this "little card" meant and what changes it could bring to his life. But Wang Peng was at least certain that this time his hopes would not be disappointed again. Seeing Wang Peng draw down, Bian Erwu smiled happily.
"He has been in the aid station longer than my 'working years', and when he is old, he can be transferred to a nursing home." Wang Peng said.
Like Bian Erwu, the 193 stranded recipients will all have the status of Tianjin citizens after settling down, and this is only part of the work.
More importantly, they will be included in the corresponding security system, and those who meet the conditions can enjoy the Tianjin Orphans, Special Hardship Support Guarantee, Medical Insurance, "Tomorrow Plan" medical rehabilitation, major illness assistance, etc.; disabled people like Bian Erwu can also enjoy the relevant protection policies for the disabled.
The 24 minor recipients who settled with Zhu Youqing this time all suffered from different degrees of intellectual disability. Tian Zhiguo was particularly pleased to think that they would be able to attend classes in accordance with the standards of the compulsory education curriculum of special education schools in the future. While well-designed and taught lessons by social worker organizations are also of great help to children, professional special education teachers can lead to a more systematic education.
"We will gradually transfer these settled personnel to public social welfare institutions, designated hospitals and other resettlement sites in batches, give centralized support, medical treatment, and implement classified care for the elderly, children and the disabled, so that they can get more professional care." Wang Yingmei said.
What to do after settling down, there is still room for policy refinement
"What to do after settling down is indeed a problem that deserves the attention of local governments." Guan Xinping said that the follow-up measures in Tianjin are still relatively well designed, "taking into account the life, education and medical needs of the stranded recipients." However, there is still room for further refinement of the policy, such as whether there will be disabled people who still have some working ability in the future? Does the Government have a follow-up employment training programme to help them find jobs and reintegrate into society? That's all we need to think about next. ”
In addition to doing a good job of follow-up docking with the corresponding social welfare institutions, for social concerns such as preventing individuals from "exploiting loopholes", the Tianjin Civil Affairs Department has made it clear that it will strictly control multiple passes to ensure that there is no gap in the policy - before the long-term stranded recipients settle down, the public security department will conduct a strict procedural review; after settling down, the work of searching for relatives will not stop, but continue to extend; after transferring to the corresponding security agencies, the caregivers will feedback the newly discovered identity information clues to the rescue management station to continue the search for relatives; after settling down, the search for relatives is successful The civil affairs department will escort him back to his hometown and cancel his household registration in Tianjin.
Tianjin's settlement of homeless beggars highlights the warmth of the policy, and even more highlights the city's mind and temperature.
"When a homeless beggar appears on the street, should we worry about him discrediting the city, or about his cold and warm hunger? This news has received more than 5 million hits, which fully reflects the attention of the society, encourages our work to be good, makes up for the shortcomings of social governance, and promotes the progress of the whole society. Wang Mingqiang, head of the second business section of the Tianjin Social Welfare Management Office, is a new Tianjin native from Shandong who has his own thoughts on the temperature of the city.
It was an ordinary Monday morning rush hour, and Tianjin Metro Line 2 picked up passengers carrying large bags and small bags from Tianjin Station and continued in the direction of Caozhuang. In the carriage, there are young white-collar workers with headphones plugged in to close their eyes and recuperate, there are uncles who have returned from shopping for vegetables on the seat to sort out a few tomatoes that are about to fall out of the shopping bag, more people are looking down and brushing their mobile phones, and almost no one pays special attention to the public service advertisement about the national census in the subway radio -
"With the participation of the census family, the bright future is shared by everyone." The seventh national census requires your support and cooperation. ”
"These 193 people have no household registration, no identity card, no name, and they are not even eligible to accept the census!" Thinking of someone coming to this world, but not leaving even a trace, Wang Mingqiang, the big man in Shandong, exuded the delicacy and softness of the civil affairs people. (At the request of the interviewee, Zhu Youqing is a pseudonym)
(Reporters Lei Kun, Bai Jiali, Yin Siyuan)
Editor-in-Charge: Zhou Chuqing