China vowed yesterday to step up its poverty-relief campaign to
improve the quality of life of the disabled.
"All disabled people living in poverty can expect to be provided
with adequate food and clothing by 2010," said Ismail Amat, head of
a State Council committee that co-ordinates work concerning
disabled people.
The number of poverty-stricken disabled people has decreased from
20 million in 1992 to last year's 9.79 million.
But to fulfill this goal, all local governments need to take
greater initiatives to do their share both in raising fund and in
implementing training, while the central government will enhance
its role as the leading force, according to Deng Pufang, president
of the China
Disabled Persons' Federation.
"The remaining tasks might be the most difficult part of the whole
project," he added.
According to Deng, most poverty-stricken disabled people live
outside the central government's designated key areas where aid
relief is in force, making it more difficult for organizers to
arrange suitable poverty-relief programs.
Statistics indicate that only 85 percent of these poverty stricken
people have attended primary school and junior middle school, and
have little chance of securing a decent job unless further training
is given.
Since the central government's special poverty-relief funds are
mainly used to support key poverty-relief areas where disabled
people normally make up no more than 30 percent of the local
poverty-stricken population, Deng urged local governments in other
regions to increase resources allocated to improve the lives of
impoverished disabled people.
Both funds and specially designed training should be used to
introduce some small-scale productive activities, such as planting,
cultivation and handicrafts, which can generate positive results in
a short period of time.
Governments at all levels have trained around 2 million disabled
people in various productive skills in the above-mentioned fields
in the period between 1992 and 2000, which has resulted in most of
them achieving a better quality of life through their own hard
work.
To
render additional support for such activities outside the key areas
of poverty relief, the country started an interest-free loan
program in 1992, whose annual volume increased from the original
100 million yuan (US$12.1 million) to 2.6 billion yuan (US$314
million) in 1999.
Although there is no clear-cut pledge that loans will see a
significant increase in the future, Zhang Yun, a leading official
with the Agricultural Bank of China in charge of the loan system,
has said that in consideration of the important role that the loan
has been playing, the bank will "see to ensuring support for enough
good projects that will actually benefit the impoverished disabled
population."
(China
Daily November 14, 2001)