410,000 Women Get Loans to Start Businesses

By the end of October 2010, the state had provided 16.6 billion yuan (US$2.57 billion) in small loans to aid 410,500 women across the country to start businesses, according to a report titled "Assessment Report on the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010)" issued on Thursday.

By September 2010 there were 1.59 million organizations for female employees set up in 77.61 percent of all the trade unions in China, and a total of 713,600 collective contracts for female employees were signed, covering over 1.24 million enterprises and public institutions and 54.24 million women workers, says the report issued by the Information Office of the State Council, or China's cabinet.

Women's right to employment and equal access to economic resources is guaranteed, it says.

Moreover, women's right to participate on an equal footing with men in the management of state and social affairs is guaranteed.

Women representatives account for 21.3 percent of all representatives in the 11th National People's Congress, and female members account for 17.7 percent in the 11th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The proportion of females in the leadership of governments at all levels is increasing, as is the level of participation of rural women in grassroots democratic management, it says.

The state has also intensified efforts to combat domestic violence against women, it says.

The 56-page report says that China has accomplished all targets set in a national human rights action plan.

The State Council's Information Office published the plan in April 2009, which was China's first national plan on human rights and served as a policy document for advancing China's human rights cause.