Newsletter 3: January 2009
Social Protection and Ageing
The Case of Rural China
Introduction:
According to the Report on the Development Trend of China’s Population Aging by China National Committee on Aging in 2006, China became an aged society in 1999, as one of the earliest aging societies among developing nations. By the end of 2005, Chinese population aged 60 and above reached 144 million in number, making up 11% of the total Chinese population. The same report predicted that by the year of 2020, the number of aged Chinese will be 248 million, 17% of the total population. By the year of 2050, the number of the elderly will be over 400 million, making up 30% of the Chinese population.
China’s rapid economic growth in the last three decades has led to a rapid accumulation of the social wealth in the Chinese society. However, distribution has been the casualty in this growth process. The public debate on the growing inequality has recently pushed the policy makers to transfer more public resources to vulnerable groups, resulting in increased funding for social relief programs for the rural populations, increasingly made up of aged people.
Previous experiences have confirmed that the number of beneficiaries of the public relief programs has always been limited and the majority of the people in need of relief are excluded. Even among those who benefit from the program, the levels of benefits are usually too low to protect them from falling into poverty.
Providing social support for the aged population in rural communities under rapid social transition not only requires a fair distribution of resources from the government, but also requires a change in the way of support delivery from mean-testing relief to universal protection, and also the active involvement of the aged individuals themselves, their families, and community organizations, in identifying the needs and organizing services to meet these needs.
Thus it would be of interest to understand the involvement of the rural old people in organizing old age support within the community. Collective approaches to the organization of elderly support by making use of the local economic, social and cultural capitals are explored in depth in our research study.
Almost all research about support for the rural aged showed that family support is still the main form of support for the rural aged, the most important reason being that the rural aged have very low, if any, cash income. Social support as well as community support is still insufficient supplement. (Mu, 1999) Almost all the income that the rural aged could obtain is from crop farming production or transfers from their children. Pauperization among the aged in rural areas has become a serious social problem. The current generation of the rural aged was completely deprived of the opportunity to accumulate any private property when they were young, for some historical reasons.
Decent HousingThere have been frequent reports on the families of empty nests in rural areas. Some researchers estimate that the ratio of empty nest families in rural areas has risen to about a half of the total households due to migrant labor and other reasons. (Hu, 2006; Hu & Ding, 2003) Most of these empty nest families are constituted by old people and they usually live in shabby houses that lack repair, where potential safety hazards often exist.
Medical Care
Pauperization also leads to difficulty in paying for the ever-raising cost of medical care in times of need (Lu, 2002). The urban-biased policy also led to the imbalance of medical resources between urban and rural areas and the rural aged definitely become one of most disadvantaged group in terms of accessibility of medical resources. Moreover, peasants in China have been deprived of any medical security since the mid 1980s.
Long Term Care
Although most of the rural aged are generally able to take care of themselves (Zhang, 2000; Lu, 2002), the life expectancy of the aged is increasing rapidly accompanied with decrease of physical functioning and mobility. The aged that are not in good health conditions often need more intensive family care. However, many studies have found that family resources are decreasing as women of younger generations often become migrant laborers moving out of the family (Gao, 2003). And when the rural aged live separately from their children, long-term care from family support is also unsustainable (Zhang & Lu, 2007).
Opportunities for Social Participation
In rural areas, the need for opportunities for social participation by the aged is often viewed as a way of self-fulfillment as well as an approach to self-dependence. Most rural aged seem to have their sub-groups and notable sub-culture, isolated to some extent not only physically but also culturally. Lack of entertainment in the countryside has often led to the emptiness of the mental life of the aged in empty nest families (Zhou & Chu, 2008) and lack of participation in community activities has aggravated the situation (Xie & Li, 2006).
In summary, the absence of a social security system for the rural population and the crisis in traditional family functions prevent the rural elderly from enjoying a life of security. At present, there is little sign of the state’s willingness to extend the coverage of the existing old age insurance program to include the rural elderly, though rural old age security as a policy issue has received considerable public attention. At the same time, the traditional family support practice is inevitably losing its advantages in the process of urbanization and modernization. It is in this context that our project was planned to seek alternative approaches to old age security for the elderly in rural areas under rapid socio-economic transition.
Our project focuses on exploring potential community resources for old age support in rural China, on understanding how the community resources can be coordinated and organized for supporting the elderly, and on examination of the implications of community organized elderly support activities for a state institutionalized program of rural old age security. To explore potential community resources, this project selected three sites for observation: JX Village in Jiangsu Province, DZT Village in Shandong Province, and ZZ Village in Shanxi Province. The three cases share the similarities of having certain collective or self-organized efforts for elderly support though these cases are quite diversified in terms of organizational form and level of old age security.
The case of JX Village (Changshu County, Jiangsu Provice, Central East Coast of China) serves as an evidence for the potential of the rural community to generate resources for organizing local old age support programs. In this village, one could find a comprehensive program of old age security funded by the profit generated from collective economic production and an ideology of equity within the community.
The case of DZT Village presents a self-organized effort to generate resources for old age independence and support. The approach to increasing income security and self-fulfillment of the aged people in this village is by including them in local development through creating opportunities for them to take active part in contribution to the local economy. The village is located in Shandong Peninsular where the level of economic development is at an average level in China.
The case of ZZ Village provides a situation in which there is a less organized effort by the rural elderly to seek opportunities for economic independence and living in autonomy. ZZ Village is located in the southern tip of Shanxi Province along the Yellow River, a cross area in the northwest of China that separates the three provinces of Shanxi, Shan’xi, and Henan.
The above three cases provide us with a limited and partial reality of the old age support in rural China. It seems that traditional arrangements of aged people living with one of their adult children under the same roof have been seriously undermined once the old people are financially secured. The majority of the elderly who have a stable income choose to live in a separate house from their children. This separation of living within the community does not disengage the old people from their families. On the contrary, it gives both the elderly and the younger generations more free space and avoids some generational conflicts.
There is a need to rethink of the aged as a valuable resource in rural community development. The overwhelming majority of old people in these villages, especially those under the age of 80, are not dependent on anyone for a living: Though some have to work as a result of lack of support, many of them engage in production as a way of life even they have enough income from family and the community.
*Extracted from the background paper prepared by PEI Xiaomei, CHEN Pei and HU Yi for the research project being carried out by Tsinghua University under the SPA programme
Gao, Herong: Why the Project "Social Supporting for Elderly in County Level" not Work in Rural China, Market and Demography Analysis, 2003.9
Hu, Qiangqiang: Urbanization and Care of the Aged People Remaining in the Countryside, Journal of Nanjing College for Population Programme Management, 2006.2
Hu, Yang; Ding, Shijun: Choices of Family Support for the Rural Aged in New Times,
Rural Economy, 2003.4
Lu, Kerong: Approach to Living Conditions and Ways of Provide for Old-age People in Rural Areas, Rural Economy, 2002.11
Mu, Guangzong: Theoretical Analysis of Problem of Family Support for the Rural Aged in China, Social Science, 1999.12
Xie, Huijuan; Li,Guiping: The Difficulties and Measures of Providing for the Aged for "the Old to Live Alone in the Countryside, Journal of Shaoyang University, 2006. 10
Zhang, Chunjuan; Lu, Yuanqing (2007): Attack on Traditional Family Support Model for the Rural Aged Though Social Mobilization, Social Work, 2007.7
Zhang, Yuanzhen (2000): Survey and Thoughts on Support for the Rural Aged Problem in Central Backward Areas of China, Demographic Research, 2000.9
Zhou, Chengchao; Chu, Jie; Xu, Xiaochao: Survey on Depression of Empty Nest Aged People in Rural Community of Anhui Province, Chinese Mental Health Journal, 2008.2