Democratic reform in Tibet ensures people’s basic rights

A white paper released to mark the 60th anniversary of the campaign for democratic reform in Tibet says the past six decades have turned the autonomous region in southwest China into a beautiful home for the local people.

The white paper “Democratic Reform in Tibet: 60 Years On” was released one day ahead of the Serfs Emancipation Day, which falls on March 28th.

The day was designated to commemorate the 1959 democratic reforms in Tibet, which ended feudal serfdom and freed about one million Tibetan serfs from the system.

The document said that Tibet has seen achievements in sectors such as environmental protection, improvements to people’s living standards, the promotion of education, and the availability of medical services.

Jia Xiaohua, an official with the regional environmental protection authorities, said there has been a significant improvement in the quality of Tibet’s environment.

“Nearly 100 percent of the rivers and lakes being monitored have reached national water quality standards. In terms of air quality, in seven major cities, 98.2 percent of days are rated as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ on average,” said Jia.

Tibet has set up 47 nature reserves covering 34.3 percent of the autonomous region’s area.

The forest coverage rate in Tibet is 12.1 percent, while the vegetation coverage of natural grassland has reached 45.9 percent.

Norbu Dondrup, the executive vice chair of the region’s government, said all of the people in Tibet have a right to education that is fully protected.

“In old Tibet, education was the preserve of the privileged serf owners which made up only 5 percent of the population. But now all of the people can get access to education. Our country has provided funds to set up a great number of schools in the region, and all the children of school age have the right to enter school,” said Dondrup.

So far, the average length of the education of people in Tibet has reached 9.5 years.

By 2017, the region had over 1,200 kindergartens, 800 primary schools, 130 middle schools, and seven institutions of higher learning. The number of graduates from these schools has increased from 18,000 in 1959 to over 530,000 today.

Ren Jingdong, the vice head of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Development and Reform Commission, said that steady progress has also been made in the provision of medical and health services.

“By the late 1970s, regional epidemics presenting significant health hazards had been brought under control, and the morbidity and mortality rates of infectious and endemic diseases were in sharp decline,” said Ren.

The local population had grown to 3.4 million by 2018, with life expectancy increasing to 68.2 years.

The childbirth mortality rate has fallen to 1 death per 1,000 births, while the infant mortality rate dropped to just 10 per 1,000 births.