Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policies Achieve Good Results

Member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference () Xie Hong, who is also Director of the Shanxi Science and Technology Department, holds the idea that relevant departments should pay more attention to  rural elderly people who have been abandoned by their adult children.

President Xi Jinping was quoted as saying that the (CPC) has promised to win the anti-poverty war, ensuring poverty-stricken people and poverty-stricken areas can enter the moderately prosperous society at the same time as others.

As a result, targeted poverty alleviation policies were launched in many places and achieved remarkable results.

However, Xie found that there exists a phenomenon whereby some elderly people are abandoned by their children in rural areas.

In order to obtain subsidies for for impoverished elderly people, some people choose to separate their hukou (household registrations) with their parents.

This also places the burden of caring for their parents on the government.

Some people working or doing business in cities do not fulfill their duties of caring for their parents due to the government's basic poverty relief policy. Such a phenomenon should arouse concern.

She considers there are two reasons contributing to the practice. First, there still exist some loopholes when accurately identifying the impoverished households.

According to the poverty-relief policy, archives listing families living in poverty are established per household, so those elderly parents with an individually registered residence who were formerly supported by their sons or daughters will be abandoned.
 
Some people make another household residence for their parents to get the subsidies, while not fulfilling their legal duties.

Some "Poverty Households" do not think it is a shame to take the subsidies and some can become reliant on them, making little effort to find work or other forms of income.

Some people even take the subsidies for themselves by using their parents' pension bank card, subsidy card for grains planting and social security card.

All such problems have a greatly negative effect on poverty alleviation and local communities.

Second, many people lack the awareness to take in their parents.

With an aging population in China, comes the issue of how to secure and improve rural residents' post-retirement living standards.

The Party and government have placed emphasis on old-age support issues and built a multilevel senior service system, such as day care centers and nursing homes for elderly people.

There are more empty nesters and "left-behind" elderly people, however, in many rural areas as their adult children choose to work in cities.

"Many people think their parents are no longer important, and are even a burden for them, and this phenomenon should be worth our attention," Xie added.

President Xi Jinping stressed that the government should create the policy system and social environment to support elderly people and respect them in his report to the 19th CPC National Congress, so Xie put forward some proposals.

First, it is necessary to improve the relevant regulations and mechanisms to support and care for elderly people.

The government should enact policies and laws that require adults to care for their aging parents, establishing a relevant credit mechanism, for example.

Those people who deliberately abandon their elderly parents or do not fulfill their duties will be incorporated into the credit system, which will have an influence on their work and other activities.

The government can establish the "Parents' Pension" system, which stipulates that adult children should pay proportionately to care for elderly people.

A support mechanism for elderly people should also be established, and assistance and support given to those impoverished families who fulfill their duties.

Secondly, the government should strictly identify impoverished households. Their identifications should include any adult children’s conditions so they can get out of poverty together.

On the household registration system, the government can encourage adult children to have one Hukou with their elderly parents with some subsidies given to them. Those who have separated their Hukou with their parents should be scrutinized.

Misconceptions such as getting something for nothing must be eliminated, which can also prevent people from passing all responsibility onto the government and poverty-alleviation personnel.

Third, an optimum atmosphere for promoting filial piety throughout society in the media should be created. Programs related to filial piety can be launched nationwide.

Meanwhile, the government should intensify efforts to crack down on such activities as abandoning children, not fulfilling their duties to support their parents, and defrauding preferential policies intended for disadvantaged people.

"Filial piety is a traditional virtue in China and it is the most important duty for adults and families to fulfill. We must catch up with the trend to form a consensus of advocating filial piety culture with all people's participation across the whole of society. All of this can help elderly people in rural areas live a happy life," Xie added.

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