A desperate student of a senior Beijing high school committed
suicide Friday for being unable to register for the national
college entrance exam for lack of "hukou", a residence registration
identity and a prerequisite for the enrollment.
The 17-year-old girl gulped one to three grams of nitrite powder
on the street after school on Friday, when an online registration
system was opened to this June's matriculation candidates but she
felt hopeless to be registered, the local evening newspaper
Fazhi Wanbao reported on Monday.
The girl, given an assumed name Lingling, was then immediately
struck by terrible pain and unable to move, but fortunately she was
rushed to hospital after being found by a classmate, the newspaper
said.
Lingling was out of life danger, but still needed five to six
days to discharge all the poison out of her body, the paper
said.
The girl, however, seemed to have little, if any, chance as the
online registration deadline of Jan. 10 was approaching.
Lingling, an academically excellent student, was born out of
wedlock, and her parents parted, according to the newspaper.
She lived with her father without hukou for 17 years. Her
father, surnamed You, had had several different jobs over the past
17 years and in 1999, he was transferred from east China's Jiangsu
Province to Beijing, working as a consultant in the municipal
environmental protection bureau and obtaining a Beijing hukou
himself.
But his daughter was denied of local residence registration as a
natural child could not be given a hukou according to related
regulations.
Mr. You was told that to give Lingling a hukou, he had to find
Lingling's mother, who had been married, to marry her and then get
divorced.
China's residence registration system, or "hukou" system, was
introduced in 1958 and had direct bearings on education, employment
and welfare.
For a quite long time, the system played a positive role for
maintaining social stability. But over recent years when the
society became more open and diversified, hukou sometimes becomes a
major obstacle for people to enjoy education, employment and
welfare rights.
The Ministry of Public Security is considering to reform the
system but there is no detailed timetable.
The newspapers said it was still possible for Lingling to get a
Beijing hukou if police authorities gave special approval according
to a brand new regulation.
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2008)