Chinese farmers need protection

Chinese farmers need protection

Dong Yuexian, Researcher, State Information Center,
Department of Economic Forecast, China Daily, Asia News Network, Beijing

A social security system is urgently needed in rural China so
that farmers can take care of their basic needs in life.

In mid August the Ministry of Labour and Social Security
announced it will try to streamline the national social security
system by implementing several new measures.

By helping unemployed and laid-off workers qualify for
endowments, unemployment and health care insurances, the ministry
is determined to provide relief for some of the country's needy.

These measures, however, are only aimed at urban residents.

While there is no doubt the current administration has made
impressive strides in improving the social security system in
cities and towns, providing the same coverage to rural residents
remains a daunting task.

Under the current system, an urban dweller automatically
qualifies for pension and health care insurance once he or she
finds employment.

By contrast, most members of the rural population can only
rely on their land for income because the State only extends aid
to some ultra poor in rural areas.

As a result, the rural residents who account for nearly 70
percent of the nation's total population only absorb about 11
percent of the total social security expenditure while the other
89 percent is spent on urban residents.

This disparity has contributed to the growing gap between the
living standards of rural and urban populations.

Another factor contributing to the urgency of establishing a
social security system in rural China is the aging population. In
2001, 7.1 percent of China's residents were 65 years of age or
older.

With 70 percent of the elderly living in rural areas, the need
to provide adequate social security becomes even more acute while
the family planning policy, which has been in effect about two
decades, helped create more nuclear families in the rural areas.
As a result, the average rural adult has to take care of more
aging relatives.

The blueprint for China's rural social security system should
address three basic needs: Cost for maintaining minimum standard
of living; health care fees; and old age pension.

The average income of farmers has been slowly increasing for
years, but many rural families are still suffering from poverty.
Setting up a system guaranteeing the minimum living standard for
rural residents would help ease their worries and stabilize
society.

Establishing such a system will require a series of measures.
Above all, a law should be drafted to address relative issues
about such a system.

Then policies should be worked out to grant favorable
treatment to poor farmers, such as tax cuts and free education.

Another primary concern for rural residents is health care.

The new security system should try to ensure that the rural
people, the majority of the nation's population, can get basic
medical services.

Healthcare insurance fees for farmers should be divided among
the farmers and the collective economic entities like villages
and local governments, but the specific standard, financing
method and management should be adapted to the real situation of
different parts of the nation.

That same principle should apply to rural old age pension
insurance.

For rural residents in coastal areas who are better off on
average, the sum of old age pension insurance should not be the
same as their counterparts in poverty-stricken regions. And fees
for old age pension should be solely paid by the farmers
themselves.

Knowledge about old age pension should also be popularized
among farmers to help them better accept the practice.