A total of 20 provinces and municipalities have issued detailed household registration policies for the people who have failed to register their household legally, according to a report by Chinanews.com.
This follows the document issued by the General Office of the State Council in January that ordered the removal of illegal restrictions to citizens' rights to a hukou or household registration.
The State Council document urged every citizen to register in the permanent residence registration system according to the law. Unregistered citizens include those who do not have a birth certificate, those born out of wedlock, orphans adopted outside the official system; and those who lost their hukou due to marriage traditions, being pronounced missing or dead, or previously holding invalid registration papers.
Based on this document, the policies issued in the provinces divide the unregistered citizens into more detailed categories and clarify the procedure required in each category to complete the registration. Authorities in Jilin province have added a category for those released from prison or reeducated-through-labor. Authorities in Anhui and Guangdong province have added a category for vagrants and beggars, and in Guansu and Hebei province, authorities have added a category for those who failed to register their household for historical reasons.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, there are an estimated 13 million unregistered citizens in China, or they comprise one percent of the population as of December 2015. In China, citizens are issued a hukou based on their place of residence. Various social benefits such as medical insurance and access to basic education are based on hukou permits.
