The fast-ageing process has placed a burden on traditional
Chinese family-supporting pension mechanisms in rural areas.
Deputies attending the National People's Congress (NPC) are urging
the government to build a social security system for old people in
rural areas, covering basic living costs and medical expenses.
The latest national census in 2000 showed that among the 133
million people aged over 60 in China, more than 85.57 million are
in the countryside. The countryside has a faster ageing process
than cities around 1.23 per cent higher and the gap will not be
closed until 2040, said a recent report on China's ageing process
released by the China Ageing Committee in February.
Different from developed countries, China has a higher level of
old people in the countryside, rather than in cities, said Li
Bengong, an official of the committee, as quoted by Xinhua News
Agency, adding that the countryside, especially in western China,
faces a great ageing pressure.
While the majority of the elderly in cities are covered by the
social security system, the elderly in rural areas are usually
forced to depend on their offspring for their living and health
care expenses.
The lack of pensions, the burden of diseases, and the reliance
on the children's sense of family responsibility, lead to an
unsatisfactory, or even terrible, life for the older rural
population.
Experts at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimate that
9 per cent of the rural senior population is living in poverty.
However, deputies from the countryside said they saw a more serious
poverty problem.
"Some old people are living very badly. They don't have money to
treat disease. In some cases, their families are too poor to
provide enough food," said Yang Shaojun, NPC deputy from Central
China's Hunan Province.
"The government shall build an aiding system for rural people
over 75 years old, who usually can't take any labour work. The
support shall start with basic living costs."
Currently, an aiding system sponsored by the central government
is available in 15 provinces, covering more than 7 million rural
people. However, the aid is mostly for farmers who are hit by
disasters.
Chen conducted a four-month survey on the living conditions of
old people in a county in Hunan, where two-thirds of poor families
raise one or two old people over 75 years old. In Taiping Village
of the county, 115 villagers are over 75 years old, 70 percent of
them are badly sick and their families are extremely poor. The
monthly 15 yuan (US$1.87) subsidy from the government for poor
farmers is not enough to meet their needs.
Yang gave an example of 82-year-old Lin Shiqing and his wife,
aged 81, living with their son's family. The family's total annual
income, around 4,800 yuan (US$600), is not enough to support six
family members, with the old couple and their son sick. The family
already owes a debt of 4,000 yuan (US$500).
"The family-planning policy is difficult to be applied in the
countryside, and one major reason is that farmers are worried about
their life when they get old," Yang said.
Besides poverty and sickness, there are not enough people in the
countryside who can take care of old people, because many young
people go to the cities to make a living. Statistics from the
Ministry of Civil Affairs show that by the end of last year, the
country's some 32,000 old people's homes in rural areas hosted
632,000 people, but is still far from meeting all the needs.
"What the old people need, more than money, is more emotional
support from their children," said Peng Zhenqiu, NPC deputy from
Shanghai. "More calls and visits are necessary to resolve old
people's loneliness."
(China Daily March 9, 2006)