Caring for the elderly at Madian Village in the western Feixi County,Anhui Province
Original, GPIG, 03-22-2018
Since 1996 when the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Protection of the Rights and Interests if the Elderly was enacted, the living and development conditions of the elderly in both urban and rural areas have witnessed a great improvement. Especially in cities, the standard of the elderly’s material and cultural life has upgraded and their attitudes have also changed a lot. However, the conditions of the elderly in rural areas are not so optimistic. Especially in impoverished areas, the elderly have to take care of the children, plant crops and raise animals. They are far from having a sense of fulfillment, worthiness and happiness.
Madian Village in the western Feixi County, Anhui Province is a typical agricultural village. Mainly depending on agricultural production, its economy is rather backward. Such a conditions very typical not only in Feixi county but also in all rural areas in Anhui Province. In Madian Village, the elderly do most of the farming as a large number of young adults leave the village to work in the cities. The elderly work from dawn to night and in the busy season, they have to continue to work excessively. To reduce the burden of their children working in cities, they even shoulder the responsibility of raising and educating grandchildren. Among the elderly over 60 in Madian Village, 119 people work all year round. This accounts for more than half of the total elder population. High-intensive labor brought the elderly some physical and psychological harm.
However, in spite of their industry and experience in production, the elderly’s income became less and less. In 2003, the net income of farmers in Madian Village was 2,650 yuan while that of the elderly over 60 was only 720 yuan, and the gap was wide indeed. The elderly are generally engaged in the traditional agricultural production, making it difficult to increase income. With physical strength diminishing, the elderly feel powerless to do some types of farm work. Besides, do to a lack of production funds, the elderly can do nothing to increase agricultural productivity.
Influenced by the idea that more children bring more happiness in their youth, most rural old people have four to five kids. They work hard to send kids to school, and to accumulate enough money for kids to get married and build new houses, but have no savings for old age. However, as their children have their own families now, they may fail to take care of their aged parents. For that reason, the living standard of the elderly is lower than other groups of people. In Madian Village, per capita living expenditure of the elderly was only 775 yuan, lower than that of rural residents in Feixi County by 1,457 yuan and equivalent to 34.7% of the average consumption level of rural residents. As for dwelling, although dwelling conditions improved a lot in rural areas with the glass-and-steel houses and wood-and-brick houses accounting for 90 percent of the housing area, but the elderly generally live in old houses and even in dilapidated houses.
As there are no facilities for cultural activities in rural areas, farmers’ cultural life is dull and watching TV becomes the only cultural recreation for local residents. The elderly’s mental life is more tedious, and they even have no access to TV. Only 22 percent of the elderly in Madian, or 48 people, can often watch TV. Most of the elderly go to bed after dark.
Compared to the hard labor and dull mental life, the biggest concern for the elderly is diseases. In order to save medical costs, they only go to see a doctor when the illness is really serious, even at that time some of them would not take it seriously.
At present, most of the elderly haven’t joined in the endowment insurance system. And when they lose their capacity to work, they can only depend on their kids. However, most adults don’t want to live with their parents. There are 165 aged people living alone in Madian Village, accounting for 71 percent of the total elderly population. Their kids usually only offer them rice and cooking oil. When the elderly lose their ability to support themself, they live with each kid for a fixed period of time, but some kids may refuse to take parents to their home when it comes to their turn. A number of aged people are even badly treated by their kids.
The above descriptions only represent one aspect of the living situation of the Chinese rural elderly. In destitute areas, the situation of the elderly in more worrying. Therefore, special measures must be taken to benefit the rural elderly in the process of launching poverty reduction programs. At the same time, the Chinese government should attach great importance to the elderly in rural areas and destitute areas in an effort to actively address the issue of the aging of the population, protect the elderly’s rights and interests in accordance with the law and accelerate the creation of development opportunities for the aged.
Most of the rural elderly have lost their labor capacity, and some of them are even faced with misgivings of disease and pension. For that reason, social sectors give top priority to the rights and interests of the rural elderly especially the elderly in destitute areas in the formulation and implementation of policies, laws and poverty reduction policies so as to give them something to rely on in old age.
In 2007, the minimum living standard guarantee system covered all the rural population in China. The rural minimum subsistence guarantee system is a social relief system, through which the government and society, in accordance with the statutory standards, provide necessary assistance for farmers who cannot maintain the minimum standard of living.
In October 2008, the Chinese government once again proposed to create a link between the rural minimum living standard guarantee system and development-oriented poverty reduction. This meant that the civil affairs authority at county levels selected those who had a capacity to work and kept a record of them when double-checking the residents covered in rural minimum living standard guarantee system; as for those with a capacity to work, according to their conditions, departments in charge of development-oriented poverty reduction work should give them access to poverty reduction loans, programs to reduce poverty by industries, labor force transfer training and other support to help impoverished farmers improve their capability fir serf-reliance in an all-round way; for those without a capacity to work, the government continues to supply them with a minimum living allowance. In this way, the Chinese government carried out development-oriented poverty reduction work among low-income rural residents in different ways. Part of the impoverished elderly in rural areas will also be entitled to a minimum living allowance.
Original, GPIG, 03-22-2018
Since 1996 when the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Protection of the Rights and Interests if the Elderly was enacted, the living and development conditions of the elderly in both urban and rural areas have witnessed a great improvement. Especially in cities, the standard of the elderly’s material and cultural life has upgraded and their attitudes have also changed a lot. However, the conditions of the elderly in rural areas are not so optimistic. Especially in impoverished areas, the elderly have to take care of the children, plant crops and raise animals. They are far from having a sense of fulfillment, worthiness and happiness.
Madian Village in the western Feixi County, Anhui Province is a typical agricultural village. Mainly depending on agricultural production, its economy is rather backward. Such a conditions very typical not only in Feixi county but also in all rural areas in Anhui Province. In Madian Village, the elderly do most of the farming as a large number of young adults leave the village to work in the cities. The elderly work from dawn to night and in the busy season, they have to continue to work excessively. To reduce the burden of their children working in cities, they even shoulder the responsibility of raising and educating grandchildren. Among the elderly over 60 in Madian Village, 119 people work all year round. This accounts for more than half of the total elder population. High-intensive labor brought the elderly some physical and psychological harm.
However, in spite of their industry and experience in production, the elderly’s income became less and less. In 2003, the net income of farmers in Madian Village was 2,650 yuan while that of the elderly over 60 was only 720 yuan, and the gap was wide indeed. The elderly are generally engaged in the traditional agricultural production, making it difficult to increase income. With physical strength diminishing, the elderly feel powerless to do some types of farm work. Besides, do to a lack of production funds, the elderly can do nothing to increase agricultural productivity.
Influenced by the idea that more children bring more happiness in their youth, most rural old people have four to five kids. They work hard to send kids to school, and to accumulate enough money for kids to get married and build new houses, but have no savings for old age. However, as their children have their own families now, they may fail to take care of their aged parents. For that reason, the living standard of the elderly is lower than other groups of people. In Madian Village, per capita living expenditure of the elderly was only 775 yuan, lower than that of rural residents in Feixi County by 1,457 yuan and equivalent to 34.7% of the average consumption level of rural residents. As for dwelling, although dwelling conditions improved a lot in rural areas with the glass-and-steel houses and wood-and-brick houses accounting for 90 percent of the housing area, but the elderly generally live in old houses and even in dilapidated houses.
As there are no facilities for cultural activities in rural areas, farmers’ cultural life is dull and watching TV becomes the only cultural recreation for local residents. The elderly’s mental life is more tedious, and they even have no access to TV. Only 22 percent of the elderly in Madian, or 48 people, can often watch TV. Most of the elderly go to bed after dark.
Compared to the hard labor and dull mental life, the biggest concern for the elderly is diseases. In order to save medical costs, they only go to see a doctor when the illness is really serious, even at that time some of them would not take it seriously.
At present, most of the elderly haven’t joined in the endowment insurance system. And when they lose their capacity to work, they can only depend on their kids. However, most adults don’t want to live with their parents. There are 165 aged people living alone in Madian Village, accounting for 71 percent of the total elderly population. Their kids usually only offer them rice and cooking oil. When the elderly lose their ability to support themself, they live with each kid for a fixed period of time, but some kids may refuse to take parents to their home when it comes to their turn. A number of aged people are even badly treated by their kids.
The above descriptions only represent one aspect of the living situation of the Chinese rural elderly. In destitute areas, the situation of the elderly in more worrying. Therefore, special measures must be taken to benefit the rural elderly in the process of launching poverty reduction programs. At the same time, the Chinese government should attach great importance to the elderly in rural areas and destitute areas in an effort to actively address the issue of the aging of the population, protect the elderly’s rights and interests in accordance with the law and accelerate the creation of development opportunities for the aged.
Most of the rural elderly have lost their labor capacity, and some of them are even faced with misgivings of disease and pension. For that reason, social sectors give top priority to the rights and interests of the rural elderly especially the elderly in destitute areas in the formulation and implementation of policies, laws and poverty reduction policies so as to give them something to rely on in old age.
In 2007, the minimum living standard guarantee system covered all the rural population in China. The rural minimum subsistence guarantee system is a social relief system, through which the government and society, in accordance with the statutory standards, provide necessary assistance for farmers who cannot maintain the minimum standard of living.
In October 2008, the Chinese government once again proposed to create a link between the rural minimum living standard guarantee system and development-oriented poverty reduction. This meant that the civil affairs authority at county levels selected those who had a capacity to work and kept a record of them when double-checking the residents covered in rural minimum living standard guarantee system; as for those with a capacity to work, according to their conditions, departments in charge of development-oriented poverty reduction work should give them access to poverty reduction loans, programs to reduce poverty by industries, labor force transfer training and other support to help impoverished farmers improve their capability fir serf-reliance in an all-round way; for those without a capacity to work, the government continues to supply them with a minimum living allowance. In this way, the Chinese government carried out development-oriented poverty reduction work among low-income rural residents in different ways. Part of the impoverished elderly in rural areas will also be entitled to a minimum living allowance.
