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Old-age care recommended for rural China's elderly

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Old-age care recommended for rural China's elderly.[File photo]

An old-age care model in dealing with rural China's increasing aging population has become popular.

Sociologists believe the model, characterized with the elderly taking care of those even older should be recommended in China's rural areas where young workforce are migrating to large cities to make a living.

This old-age care model, which was initiated in 2008 at a small village in north China's Hebei Province advocates elderly people caring for those even older.

Despite his old age, 68-year-old retired farmer Zhang Guosheng will look after 81-year-old Zhang Shouzhi who is near-deaf, immobile and has no family in the village to take care of him.

The younger Zhang says he expects to be cared for when he is getting too old to care for others, thanks to this model.

"At the moment, I can help him. When I am old, a new, younger resident will come here and they can help me. This is what we all hope for."

Five years ago, a disused brick house in the village was turned into an old-age home for 25 lonely, elderly villagers.

Cai Qingyang, head of the village says his idea has thrived under state support and more than a dozen other provinces have replicated the model.

"Because the farmers are going to other areas to find work and make money, our village ended up with left-behind, lonely elderly people. They are alone and they feel unhappy. In this situation, according to the needs of the villagers, we organized the elderly people to get together to live to old age, to help and support one another."

It is now a popular model advocated by the Chinese government as a solution to the challenge of caring for a rapidly graying rural population.

The fast pace of urbanization in China has driven millions of rural youngsters to booming cities in search of work and better lives.

However, the Ministry of Civil Affairs says the migration of youths has also caused those aged 60 and over to account for more than 30 percent of China's overall rural population by 2028, up from 14 percent at the end of 2012.

Therefore, the costs of caring for this elderly rural population could be too heavy a burden for the government budget, forcing metropolises to find cost-effective and creative ways to provide care in rural areas.

Wang Dewen, a social protection economist at the World Bank says the old-age model is urgently needed in China, with two-thirds of the country's elderly population living in the countryside.

"With the movement of a large proportion of the rural workforce towards the cities, the level of aging in the countryside is much higher than that in the cities. At the same time, incomes and levels of social security in the countryside are worse. Because of this, in the future, the challenges posed by aging population in the countryside will be much more serious than in the cities."

Wang Dewen praised the self-help model offers a cheaper and streamlined alternative to a state-run rural system, and is at least six-times cheaper than professional care.

Sociologists warned if rural families are allowed to migrate to cities together and have access to urban medical services, cities will be overpopulated and suffering excessive urbanization. Therefore, self-help model proves to be quite necessary.