reporter learned from the Propaganda Department of Pingshun County Party Committee of Changzhi, Shanxi that National People's Congress representative Shen Jilan died in Changzhi, Shanxi in the early morning of June 28.
public information shows that she was a member of the First to Thirteenth National People's Congress.
She actively safeguards the labor rights of women in New China and advocates and promotes the writing of "equal pay for men and women" into the Constitution. He has won the titles of "National Model Worker", "National Outstanding Communist Party Member", "National Poverty Alleviation's Progress Award", and "Reform Pioneer".
promotes "equal pay for men and women"
Shen Jilan was born in December 1929 and is from Pingshun, Shanxi. In 1953, the People's Daily published an article titled "Labor is liberation, and struggle can lead to status", telling the story of Shen Jilan promoting equal pay for men and women in Xigou Village, Pingshun County that year.
In 1951, a junior agricultural production cooperative was established in Xigou Village. The 21-year-old Shen Jilan was elected as vice president and mobilized women to participate in production labor, but encountered a problem: for the same work, the female members get fewer labor points than male members.
Shen Jilan recalled in an interview, "At that time, men and women were not equal. Working in the farmhouse earned work points, and two women were not as good as one man. This is not possible, women should also do well." Shen Jilan suggested that what male members do and what female members do. Women and male members engage in labor competitions, scattering fat, interstitial seedlings, and hoeing seedlings. After many struggles, female members were finally able to do the same job and get the same job points. Xigou Village was the first in the country to achieve equal pay for men and women.
Shen Jilan did not realize at that time that the "victory" achieved by the women in Xigou Village was of epoch-making significance in the history of rural development in New China. Due to the huge influence of advocating "equal pay for equal work for men and women", in 1954, 25-year-old Shen Jilan was elected as a deputy of the First National People's Congress and attended the first session of the First National People's Congress held in September 1954. At this conference, equal pay for equal work for men and women was officially written into the Constitution of the People's Republic of China.
"As a NPC deputy, you must represent the interests of the people,
speaks on behalf of the people and acts on behalf of the people"
Shen Jilan has always treasured a group photo of four female representatives of the Shanxi delegation of the First Session of the First National People's Congress in 1954. The photos are from left to right. are Liu Hulan's mother Hu Wenxiu, singer Guo Lanying, and representative Li Hui, and on the far right is Shen Jilan.
"The first time I came to the meeting was to leave with a donkey," she once told reporters, "From Xigou Village, Pingshun County to Changzhi, go down a car, go down another section to Taiyuan, and then reverse, you have to go down four or five times. It turns out that there is no road to leave the county, only a small path, and I almost couldn't get to Beijing for four days." "The first people's congress was held in the auditorium in Zhongnanhai. The voting was to send paper to my hands. At that time, I really felt that the people were the masters of the country!"
▲ In 1954, Shen Jilan, who attended the first National People's Congress, signed the registration form
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1954. From a young man with bows on his braids to a 90-year-old man with wrinkles crawling on his forehead, she witnessed the birth and growth of the People's Congress system, and is therefore called the "evergreen tree" and "living fossil" of the National People's Congress system.
"I am a farmer representative, living in the countryside every day, knowing what farmers think and hope for," Shen Jilan said, "The People's Congress gives the people the right to speak. As a People's Congress representative, you must represent the interests of the people, speak on behalf of the people, and do things on behalf of the people."
66's representative career, her suggestions and proposals cover various fields such as "agriculture, rural areas, rural areas, education, transportation, water conservancy construction, etc., including major issues related to the national economy and people's livelihood, as well as minor issues involving the interests of the masses, mountain transportation construction, arable land protection, new rural cooperative medical care, rural cadre election, tourism development in poor areas, etc., which have been continuously adopted. Some netizens concluded that the introduction of Huang into Jin, Taijiu Expressway, the renovation of Shanxi's old industrial base, the train from Changzhi to Beijing, Chibi Power Station, Qingmiao Highway, Changping Expressway, etc. were all achieved under the proposal of Shen Jilan and other NPC representatives.
At the third session of the 13th National People's Congress in May this year, she suggested that rural water and electricity self-supply areas be incorporated into the State Grid as soon as possible, and the rural network of self-supply areas be upgraded and transformed to meet the requirements of the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy and rural economic and social development.
February 1953, Shen Jilan, deputy president of Li Shunda Agriculture, Forestry and Animal Husbandry Production Cooperative in Xigou Village, Pingshun County, Shanxi Province, delivered a report at the first Model Representative Conference of Changzhi Special Administrative Office
"It's not Xigou that cannot be separated from me, it is me that cannot be separated from Xigou"
In March 1973, the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to appoint Shen Jilan as the director of the Shanxi Provincial Women's Federation. From 1973 to 1983, Shen Jilan served as director of the Provincial Women's Federation for 10 years.
After serving as the director of the Provincial Women's Federation, Shen Jilan proposed a "six no" agreement to the organization - not to transfer household registration, not to set a level, not to receive wages, not to live in, not to mobilize work relations, and not to leave the countryside. So after being a department-level cadre for 10 years, she still only received a subsidy of 50 yuan per month and did not do any private matters for herself and her children.
In the winter of 1984, after resigning from the position of director of the Provincial Women's Federation, Shen Jilan returned to Xigou Village and began to "find projects" for Xigou. She led several village cadres to the south to inspect, and then set up the first village-run enterprise in Pingshun County. The villagers recalled that in the 40 years of reform and opening up, the changes in Xigou Village have been earth-shaking. Twenty thousand acres of barren mountains are covered with green clothes, the dry stone mountains have become "Flowers and Fruit Mountains", the rocky beaches have become "Rice and Grain Rivers", the village has closed down polluted enterprises to build mushroom greenhouses, introduced photovoltaic power generation and clothing and bedding, and developed red rural leisure tourism... These were all done by Shen Jilan led the villagers.
What impressed the villagers even more was that although Shen Jilan served as the chairman of some village-run enterprises, some of the products of the enterprises also possessed the trademark of Shen Jilan. However, Shen Jilan had neither shares nor received wages, and did not get a penny from the village-run enterprises.
Shen Jilan said, "It's not that Xigou cannot live without me, it's that I cannot live without Xigou and labor. My roots are in the countryside, I am just a farmer."
Shen Jilan, who is self-positioned as a representative of women and farmers, has won the titles of "National Model Worker", "National Outstanding Communist Party Member", "National 'Progress Award' in Poverty Alleviation", and "Pioneering Reform". On December 18, 2018, the Party Central Committee and the State Council awarded Comrade Shen Jilan the title of Pioneer in Reform and awarded the Pioneer in Reform. On September 17, 2019, President Xi Jinping signed a presidential order to award Shen Jilan the "Medal of the Republic".
Shen Jilan learned from TV that he was awarded the "Medal of the Republic" and "The Party and the people have given me such a high honor. I have done too little by myself. I am very moved and excited." She said, "Although I am old, I can still do something. The Party needs me, so I have to keep doing it. Listening to the Party and following the Party is my lifelong commitment."
