Experts call for greater support for China's elderly

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-01 17:29

BEIJING: Zhao Lanxiang, 79, and her husband have lived together in their own home since their retirement -- but their three daughters and a son are never far away.

"If we need help, they will come," said Zhao. The couple once worked as railway staff in Chengdu, capital of southwestern Sichuan Province.

Their eldest daughter, Zhao Qiyun, 58, has retired from work at a railway hospital. She has an only son. In addition to taking care of her grandson, she often visits her parents.

"We do not expect our only son to look after us. He is too busy," says Zhao Qiyun.

Her family reflects the changes in the way modern Chinese are caring for their elderly relatives.

The results of a pilot survey for the "China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study," showed 40.1 percent of urban citizens and 32.5 percent of rural residents live with their spouses only.

The survey covered 2,685 people aged 45 and over and their spouse in 48 communities or villages in Gansu and Zhejiang provinces.

However, 43.9 percent of urban people and 49.4 percent of rural people live with their children, according to the results revealed at the Second International Conference on Health and Retirement in China held at Peking University on Thursday and Friday.

The survey, organized by the National School of Development of Peking University, was conducted from July to September 2008.

Scholars said a more diverse support network was required to care for the elderly among the increasingly aging population.

The population aged 60 or above has exceeded 153 million in China, accounting for about 11 percent of the total. By 2020, the number will be 248 million, or 17 percent of the total.

Albert Park, a professor with the University of Oxford, said most elderly Chinese currently had more than one child, but with the family planning policy, new families will have fewer children.

The majority of people aged 60 or above lived a traditional life, said James Smith, director of the Center for Aging Studies in Asia of RAND Corporation in the United States.

But the trend would change as young parents had one or two children, or simply no children, he said.

Migrant workers are staying in cities for longer periods and some have made the move permanent, but their parents mostly live in the countryside.

The health facilities should be improved in rural areas, and balanced regional development was needed, said Park.

A pilot pension program is expected to start this month in rural areas and cover about 10 percent of the counties by the end of this year, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

"The pension program in rural areas is an effective way to cope with the rural aging population," said Zhao Yaohui, a professor of economics in the National School of Development, Peking University.