Statement | Shizuko
"Height-only child" or the end?
Recently, the State Railway Administration issued the "Railway Passenger Transport Regulations (Draft for Comment)", which proposes to stipulate that "children who implement the real-name ticket system can purchase children's preferential tickets for children who are 6 years old and under 14 years old; children who are 14 years old or older should purchase full-price tickets." ”
Defining children's tickets by age or height has once become the focus of public opinion controversy, and there is no shortage of typical cases of court. In the context of different standards, arbitrary implementation, and public confusion, the railway transport department has shown a clear attitude: protect the legitimate rights and interests of passengers, and give priority to dividing children's tickets by age. Behind the overwhelming praise is the public's praise for the policy that moves from time to time.
The main reason why the practice of measuring height and fixing fares has become a common practice is that it is convenient and easy to operate. The only "one quantity and one quantity" step is short, highly accurate and controversial, and has obvious advantages in competition with other inspection methods. In addition, in the case of "big children" everywhere, measuring height is not a hidden means for some institutions to generate income. A paradox arises from this is that the formal equality of height measurement creates a substantially unfair ending, which is manifested in the different prices of child passengers of the same age.
Judging from the result orientation of current common practice, it is easy to form stereotypes of children's height. At present, most places use 1.5 meters as the upper limit for the purchase of child tickets. According to the "Children's Height and Weight Standard Table" released by China in 2018, the height of 12-year-old boys needs to reach 151.9 cm, and the height of 12-year-old girls needs to reach 152.4 cm to meet the standard. Stereotypical height rules filter out children who are normally developing, creating an absurd situation where they are not up to par with preferential prices.
From this point of view, it is beneficial for the railway transport department to break the "height-only theory" and give priority to the adoption of age standards that conform to the laws of children's growth. First of all, it is in line with the people-centered development concept, and the preferential ticket purchase policy is applied to all children, which is an effective measure to implement the "establishment of a fair and just passenger transport market environment". More importantly, the "national standard" of railway children's tickets is bound to drive all regions and fields to a new stage of "looking at age".
It is worth noting that the proposed new "age-based" regulations should strictly follow a premise, that is, the implementation of the real-name system of tickets. This means that all localities should accelerate the promotion of real-name authentication and management work, and parents should also complete the filling in of children's information in a timely manner, and participate in jointly protecting the legitimate rights and interests of child passengers.
【Author】 Sun Wenjing
Southern Review
Source: South+ - Create more value