More than 40 provinces and cities have legislated for funeral management
Promote funeral reform to ensure the "aftermath" of the masses
□ Pu Xiaolei, reporter of this newspaper
On April 4, the Guiyang Civil Affairs Bureau and Guiyang Funeral Management Institute of Guizhou Province organized nine families of the deceased to participate in sea burial activities in Tianjin; On April 1, at the seventh joint sea burial event of ashes in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, 9 family members of the deceased signed up for their loved ones, so that the souls of the deceased could return to the sea... Around the Qingming Festival this year, many families of the deceased chose to be buried at sea.
In recent years, with the deepening of funeral reform and the promotion of changing customs and customs, ecological burial methods such as sea burial have appeared in the choices of more people, and civilized low-carbon ritual sweeping methods such as flower sacrifices, green tree planting, family memorials, community or collective public sacrifices have gradually emerged.
The gradual formation of a new trend of civilized modern ritual sweeping is a microcosm of the remarkable results achieved by China's funeral reform. Wang Jinhua, director of the Department of Social Affairs of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, pointed out that in order to better meet the funeral needs of the masses, China continues to improve the funeral laws and policies system, and all localities will include the improvement of funeral public service capacity into the scope of basic people's livelihood needs, continuously increase financial support, and continue to promote the construction of the funeral public service system.
The system of funeral laws and policies has been continuously improved
From September 2022, 9, the newly revised "Changsha Funeral Management Regulations" came into force, and a number of policies to benefit the people were also introduced, and only the basic funeral service fee was exempted, which is expected to save nearly 1 million yuan in costs for the mourners every year. Liu Wei (pseudonym) from Sifangping Street, Kaifu District, Changsha City, Hunan Province, felt this deeply, and he spent 1,96321 yuan on his father's funeral by calling 2486 (Changsha City Body Transportation Service Line), saving more than 5500,<> yuan compared with the intermediary company he contacted before.
Ensuring the "aftermath" of the masses through legislation is the guarantee for promoting the sustainable and steady development of funeral work. In July 1997, the "Funeral Management Regulations" was promulgated and implemented, marking that China's funeral management has entered the stage of institutionalization, legalization and standardization. In recent years, more than 7 provinces and cities have legislated on funeral management. China has initially established a relatively complete system of funeral laws and regulations, and funeral management has entered the track of rule of law with laws to follow.
While actively promoting relevant legislation, China has also introduced relevant policies. For example, in terms of ensuring the basic funeral needs of the people in difficulty, various localities have continuously improved various specific measures to effectively reduce the funeral burden of the masses, and obvious progress has been made.
Zhu Yujun, deputy director of the Department of Social Affairs of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said that at present, all 31 provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have established funeral policies for urban and rural people in difficulty, providing basic funeral services such as body transportation, storage, cremation, ashes storage and green ecological burial through fee reductions or subsidies. The Huimin funeral policy in nine provinces, including Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Guangdong and Sichuan, has covered all residents with household registration.
The number of people choosing ecological burial is growing rapidly
On April 4, the 2 Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Ashes Scattering Activity jointly sponsored by the civil affairs departments of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province was held in Tianjin's Bohai Bay. Xue Xiaodong, a family member of the deceased from Tangshan City, Hebei Province, said that according to the wishes of the deceased, through the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei ashes scattering activity, their ashes were scattered into the sea, "this is an act of integrating into nature, and it also fulfills the parents' last wishes."
Lan Lan, a staff member of the funeral management office of the Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau, said that the ashes scattered into the sea is not directly scattered into the sea, but the ashes are placed in a degradable urn bag, and then the ashes are scattered into the sea through the conveyor device. Compared with the traditional burial method of ashes, the ashes scattering sea pays more attention to spiritual inheritance, advocates returning to nature, does not occupy land, does not pollute the environment, is conducive to saving resources, reduces the burden of the masses, and reflects the new trend of modern funeral for public welfare benefiting the people, ecology and civilization.
In recent years, the masses have an increasing demand for ecological burial in sea burials, tree burials, flower burials, ashes spars and other festivals. In order to encourage and guide more people to choose land-saving ecological burial methods, various places have introduced ecological burial reward and compensation policies. At present, 26 provinces across the country have issued specific implementation opinions on the implementation of land-saving ecological burial, adopted incentive and compensation measures for the selection of land-saving ecological burial methods, and increased the construction of land-saving ecological burial facilities. Beijing subsidized 4000,2022 yuan per case of ashes, Shanghai further standardized the application and distribution process of ecological burial and sea burial subsidies, Liaoning's 30 provincial subsidy standard for ashes at sea was increased by nearly 11% compared with previous years, Guangxi issued special subsidy funds to support land-saving ecological burial activities that do not retain ashes, and 90 counties (cities and districts) in <> districted cities in Zhejiang all introduced and improved ecological burial reward policies.
"With the increase of the construction of public welfare ecological burial facilities in various places, the implementation of relevant policies to benefit the people and incentives and incentives, the number of people who voluntarily choose ecological burial methods has shown a rapid growth trend, and more and more people accept and recognize these methods, especially some party members and cadres take the lead in participating, which has played a good role model, I believe that the land-saving ecological burial method will become the mainstream choice of society." Wang Jinhua said.
Promote the construction of a funeral public service system
In recent years, China has included the improvement of funeral public service capacity into the scope of basic people's livelihood needs, and continued to promote the construction of the funeral public service system by including measures such as overall planning and promotion, continuous increase in investment, and continuous improvement of the service system.
Since 2016, the state has included the construction of funeral service facilities in the implementation plan of the "2035th Five-Year Plan" social service project, into the outline of the national "102th Five-Year Plan" and the long-term goals for 249, into the implementation plan of the bottom line project of social service facilities in the "<>th Five-Year Plan" period and the <> major projects of the "<>th Five-Year Plan", strengthen the construction of funeral homes, public welfare columbariums, and rural public cemeteries, promote the transformation of old funeral homes, and implement the land-saving ecological burial reward system. At the same time, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Joint Development and Reform Commission issued the "<>th Five-Year Plan for Promoting the Filling of Gaps in Funeral Homes in Cremation Areas", focusing on promoting the construction of <> county-level funeral parlor "blank spots" in cremation areas. By the end of the "<>th Five-Year Plan", promote the goal of full coverage of all counties and cities of basic funeral service facilities nationwide, and provide basic guarantees for promoting and deepening funeral reform.
Since the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan", the state has arranged a total of 51.5 billion yuan in central budget funds to subsidize construction projects such as funeral homes and public welfare columbariums, as well as equipment purchase projects such as cremation furnaces. The Ministry of Civil Affairs has spent nearly 7 million yuan to support funeral infrastructure and equipment renovation projects in the central and western regions and eastern provinces with reference to the policies of the central and western regions. In recent years, various localities have also continuously increased financial investment to support the construction of funeral service facilities.
In recent years, with the continuous acceleration of the construction of funeral service facilities in various places, and the continuous optimization of the layout of funeral service facilities, the basic funeral public service system in the country has gradually improved. At present, there are more than 2100,1300 funeral homes, more than 71000,2400 funeral service stations, more than 14000,<> public cemeteries (including rural public cemeteries), more than <>,<> operational cemeteries, and more than <>,<> public welfare columbariums.
"In the next step, we will adhere to the public welfare attribute as the guide, improve the basic funeral service system, increase the construction of public welfare funeral facilities, strictly regulate funeral services and business behaviors, and promote the formation of funeral service guarantee capabilities that are compatible with Chinese-style modernization." Zhu Yujun said.