Central China's Hunan Province on Sunday announced a plan to provide financial aid to spouses whose only child has died or is disabled in a move designed to further consolidate the family planning policy.

One person in either rural or urban areas can receive 600 yuan (US$75) each year from the provincial government after he or she is 50 years old and if their only child? has died or is disabled, according to the plan.

Hunan is the first Chinese province to instigate such a plan, said Li Wanbin, director of the provincial family planning commission, at a press conference on Sunday.

China has announced it'll offer financial benefits to farmers who have fewer children in an effort to contain the rise in the country's population. Parents of all one-child families and those with two daughters in rural areas will receive an annual payment of 600 yuan (US$75) when they reach the age of 60.

Li Wanbin said Hunan's new scheme would enable spouses, whose child had died or is disabled, to receive financial support 10 years earlier than through the national plan.

When these people reached 60 they'd no longer be covered by the provincial scheme but would benefit from the national plan, Li added.

It's estimated that more than 6,000 people would benefit from the provincial plan by the end of this year. Hunan will spend 3.7 million yuan (US$462,500) on the scheme this year.

At one time China fined people who had more than the allowed number of children. However, officials say financial support "has proved effective in encouraging peasants to have fewer children."

Traditionally families prefer sons to daughters, especially in the countryside, where males mean a continuation of the family tree, provide stronger labor on the farm and financial support for aged parents.

(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2006)