Growing old alone

• Source: The Global Times
• [20:18 May 06 2009]
• Comments

Just who will care for China’s elderly is a question being asked around the country.

Guo Ping, vice-director of the China Research Center on Aging, said, “According to the fifth demographic census of 2000, more than 11 percent of Chinese are now aged 60 or above. Seven percent are over 65.”

By 2025, more than 13 percent of the population will be over 60, he said.

As of 2005, just 174 million of China’s 1.3 billion people were covered by the national pension scheme. Almost all of the country’s rural residents and migrant laborers were not.

“The central government must take more responsibility,” Yang Tuan, vice-director of the Social Policy Research Center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.

He Wenjiong, an expert in social welfare, said, “Local governments should also do something.”

In 2003, authorities in Zhejiang Province launched the Senior Group Living Program, which encourages elderly people in urban areas to move into government-owned nursing homes. Six years later, the scheme is still running well and some scholars have suggested the central government adopt it and roll it out across the country.

“Cultivating a professional nursing system for the elderly must be given priority,” He said.

“Local governments should also fund the training of more nurses, as a good system cannot survive without good staff.”

It has long been the tradition in China for elderly people to be cared for by their children and other relatives. These days, however, more and more young people, especially those born in the countryside, are moving away from home and leaving the older generations to care for themselves.

The village of Chongwang, Henan Province, is a good example of how the countryside is changing.

Over the past few years, more than a third of its 19,600 residents have moved away in search of better lives in cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Zhang Yuhua, a civil servant from the village, said, “As farming becomes more automated and mechanized, even fewer young people will want to stay in the village.”
People are finding it increasingly difficult to make a living from the land, he said.

“Farming doesn’t pay,” another local, who asked not to be named, said.

“If the weather’s fine, you can make a little money, but if it doesn’t cooperate, you’re dead. In the city, people can easily earn 1,000 yuan ($150) a month,” he said.

Having endured hard lives themselves, most parents hope for a better life for their children and generally encourage them to head to the cities. Howerver, while they might not be complaining, the elderly are starting to wonder who is going to take care of them in their golden years.

“It’s not just about help from the government and NGOs, it’s a question of morality,” He said.

“Children must play a bigger role if they don’t want to see their parents ending their days in a nursing home full of strangers.”