Li’s pledge on poverty offers millions hope
Print Edition
POVERTY is something Zhang Yu knows only too well, so she applauded when Premier Li Keqiang pledged this week to streamline government poverty relief efforts and ensure assistance reaches the people most in need.
Zhang has witnessed poverty in the extreme: households whose only possessions are a few blankets, a cooking pot and some bowls.
While such conditions do not represent the majority of the people in her hometown Qianjiang, in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, nonetheless, most people there are barely having their basic needs met, said Zhang, a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature.
She said disease is the major cause of poverty in the Qianjiang area, while mountainous terrain adds to problems.
“It takes nearly two days for many people living deep in the mountains to bring their agricultural produce to town for sale,” said Zhang, head of a farmers’ cooperative.
“It’s impossible for them to walk out of poverty on their own,” she added.
The lawmaker said she hopes “targeted measures” pledged in Li’s government work report to the NPC deputies yesterday will lift these people out of poverty.
Li urged local governments to merge poverty alleviation resources to ensure assistance is better targeted.
Some NPC deputies said uncoordinated relief resources currently prevent impoverished families from receiving the full government assistance allocated.
“Relief funds are scattered among different district government departments with different conditions for distributing funds,” said Zhang. “As it’s difficult to meet all the conditions, the reality is that destitute families can’t receive all the funds,” she said.
According to the latest official statistics, just under 99 million people were living below the poverty line in China in 2012.
China’s poverty line is equivalent to less than US$1 a day — lower than the World Bank level of US$1.25.
Rural dwellers with an annual net income per capita of 2,300 yuan (US$337) or less are classified as poor.
However, the 99 million figure is based on a sampling survey — exposing the lack of a nationwide database.
Wang Guoliang, deputy director of a State Council group on poverty alleviation, said this year that efforts to fight poverty are hampered by not having precise figures.
Jin Chunmei, an NPC deputy and village party secretary from north China’s Hebei Province, said poor counties eligible for state poverty relief in some developed regions are in fact more prosperous than the most developed parts of poor counties elsewhere receiving assistance.
A mechanism should be set up to monitor the development of poor counties to review their eligibility for state poverty relief, Jin said.
Some 832 counties receive poverty relief and preferential policies in China. When introduced in 1986, the list featured 331 counties.
China’s number of poor was reduced by 16.5 million last year, and Li said in his report that the government will lift some 10 million people out of poverty this year.
“We will continue to fight poverty and prevent poverty from being passed on to future generations,” said Li.
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