Positive Aging, Promises for the Elderly

Whether China benefit from ageing society depends on what kind of support can it give to the aged.

 

The 6^th national population census in China which was just completed in April shows that there are 178 million people older than 60 in this country, ranking No .7 in the world. The aged population in China is much larger than the one in Russia (140 million) and in Japan (130 million).

 

This means that China has already entered the fast ageing period. During this period, it is very important for China to solve a series of problems of decreasing labor force, pension funds and aged care system construction brought by the increasing ageing population because they are closely related with China’s social and economic development and stability in the next dozens of years.

 

How to deal with challenges brought by the ageing? The experts say that “positive ageing” strategy is a good way to maximize the power of government and society. The crux lies in whether has enough will and ability to turn “positive ageing” from a catchword into real actions.

 

As the introduction of the World Health Organization (WHO), “positive ageing” refers the old people who have retired from their previous positions but can still make contributions to their families, communities, society and even countries. How to make “positive ageing” come true is not only related with the perception change of the old people themselves, but also with support from the government and society for the healthy life of old people.

 

Reference of “Positive Ageing”

“Positive Ageing” is a term that was initially put forward in a WHO’s report in the 2^nd World Ageing Conference of the United Nations in 2002. Its three preferential development orientations of “taking part in the social development, promoting health and fortune and building supportive environment” were written in the Political Manifesto of this conference and were widely accepted and adopted by various countries in the world.

 

“Positive ageing is an effective countermeasure. But now the old people’s perception, the government polices and service levels need to be improved,” says Zheng Bing, head of the World Social Insurance Research Center, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

 

The 6^th national population census shows that the number of people older than 60 has reached 177,648,705 by November 1, 2010, accounting for 13.62% of the total population. The population aged 65 or over has been 118,831,709, taking 8.87% of the total population.

 

As the international standard, if a country or a region has 7% of its population aged or over, or 10% of its population aged 60 or over, this country or region has already entered the ageing period. Therefore, China now has already been an ageing country.

 

Compared with huge ageing population, the growth rate is much more surprising. The proportion of the people older than 60 increased by 2.93 percent and the proportion of 65-five-year people increased by 1.91 percent in comparison with the result of the 5^th national population census in 2000

 

It cost 9 years for the proportion of the population aged 60 or over to see a 2.5% change from 2000 to 2009. However, it only cost one year for this figure to have an additional 0.76% change from 2009 to 2010.

 

The journalists find that the many Chinese people, including a lot of specialists of the aged, know quite a little about the “positive ageing”. Therefore, there are a lot of blanks in the formation of relevant policies.

 

For example, the United Nations recently launched a special program from 2006 to 2010, aiming at teaching and spreading the concept about the “positive ageing” in China.

 

Wu Yushao, deputy director of the National Commission for the Aged, made a report to the United Nations on December 16, 2010, stating that the government official of six pilot areas, including the Pudong New District of Shanghai, Xintai City of Shandong, Liuyang City of Hunana, Fugou County of Henan, Kaili City of Guizhou and Dunhuang City of Gansu, have been well acquainted with the concept of “positive ageing” after five years’ propaganda in different ways. Now, 79.3% of the government officials have profound knowledge of this concept. Five years ago, the proportion was only 15.46%.

 

But this is not good news, because “five years’ propaganda in different ways” could only improve the acquaintance rate to lower than 80%. That means that there is still a long way for the “positive ageing” to be fully recognized and known by the Chinese people.

 

“Positive ageing” needs the old people to change their perception and believe that they are treasure and resource to the society instead of the burdens. It also needs the government and society to give support to the old people for their happy and joyful lives, ranging from pension insurance to medical guarantee, from service to training, from policy formation and law improvement.

 

Du Peng, head of the Aged Research Institute, People’s University, says that ageing is not a new problem. But it becomes more protruding and cannot be ignored any more.

 

“The problem is that the ageing population is growing and but the solution to the problems brought by this is far away from being found,” says Du Peng.

 

 

His study shows that the population aged 60 or over will reach 450 million people by 2050. In comparison with that period, China now is in the initial phase of the ageing society.

 

“The initial phase poses many good chances. There are a lot of problems that are not solved, but fortunately these problems are not so severe. China should make use of this period to form systematical strategy for ageing problem to deal with any harsher challenges in the future,” Du Peng says.

 

Re-know the Old People

Mrs. Lin, who is 64 years old, comes back home from ht market with a bag of vegetables, meat and fruit. Her forehead is covered with sweat, but she had no time to rest. She needs to cook dinner. Then she needs to go the kindergarten to pick up her grandson. Before taking her grandson home, she should play with this four-year little boy to play in the playground of the community they live till 6:30, waiting for her son and daughter-in-law to come back home for dinner. After dinner, Mrs. Lin needs to clean the dishes and help her daughter-in-law to wash her grandson.

 

According to the demographic statistics, 64-year-old Mrs. Lin is the one need to be fed and cared. However, in the real life, she became the “pillar” for her family. She takes care of all chores and looks after the four-year grandson. If Mrs. Lin is absent from his task because of illness or something, her daughter-in-law will be in a mess because she has to ask for a leave to look after her kid. In addition, the chores can wear her out since she is the only child of her family and never do so many things during her life.

 

Mrs. Lin is not an independent case. According to the survey in Beijing and Shanghai, more than 60% of the families have the old people (husbands or wives’ parents) to do chores and look after children.

 

In addition, in the rural areas, many children are also attended by their grandparents because their parents go to the towns or cities to work.

 

Du Peng analyzes that the perception and expectation for the old people are changing with the social development. Previously, people considered the old people as the one needing care. Now it is time to completely change this negative thought.”

 

“The old people have great variety because both a 60-year-old man and a 100-year-old man can be called old people. But they are different. In today’s China, we usually differentiate the youth by the decade they were born. So now we have the term of ‘the generation after 80s or 90s’. It should be the same with the old people,” says Du Peng.

 

The experts’ studies show that there is big difference among the old people at different ages. The old people born after 1950 have much wider horizon and much more knowledge than the older ones. Apart from the old people suffering disability, whose number takes 10% of the total ageing population, most of them can look after themselves very well and make additional contributions to their families and the society.

 

Du Peng says that previously there were propositions meaning “one is never too old to make contributions”, but little efforts were do done create an environment to support the old people.

 

“Ageing bombards us with a lot of questions. What does the society expect from the old people? Cab we provide chance for the old people to exert their talents and make contributions?”

 

Real Appeal of “Positive Ageing”

According to the study of the scholars, the most serious problem of ageing in China is the special national condition of China – it is a developing country that enters into the ageing period. Therefore, “positive ageing” needs feasible methods based on the consideration of Chinas economic and social development.

 

Ma Jiantang, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, says that China has “become old before being rich”. “This is bad news for China. We need more efficient measures to deal with this problem before its causes worse problems.”

 

Dr. Yi Fuxian, a demography expert from the U.S. University of Wisconsin, agrees with the saying of “being old before being rich”. He states that China actually entered the ageing period early in 1999. At that time the GDP per capita in China was 1000 US dollars and the developed countries’ GDP per data was 5000 to 10,000 US dollars.

 

Japan entered ageing society in 1967. The Human Development Index (an index used by the United Nations to judge the social development level) was 0.8 and the median age was 28. In comparison, the Human Development Index in China climbed to 0.8 in 2010 but the median age was 34.5 (the world’s average level is 29.1).

 

“China is definitely a country ‘becoming old before being rich’ and the ageing rate is unmatched in humankind’s history,” says Dr. Yi Fuxian.

 

But some people think that China is “becoming rich while getting old”.

 

This kind of opinion emerged after the sixth national population census. Du Peng is one of the experts advocating this idea. In his opinion, in 2010, China surpassed Japan in GDP and became the second largest economy in the world. Then, according to the data from IMF, the GDP per capita in China was 4383 US dollars, not much lower than the minimum level of 5000 US dollars in the developed countries.

 

Du Peng says that China is far away from being perfect in the social insurance system. However, China is working hard on improving these aspects. The idea that China is becoming rich while being old means that there is no excuse for the little improvement in the service for the aged. Every department should put forward measures to deal with the ageing problem.

 

The present aged care system is not good enough. Many aged care institutions are filled with residents and the service is not satisfactory; it is hard for the old people to buy the services or products they need.

 

People worry that the “population dividend”, which made great contributions to China’s economic development, will be impaired by ageing. Therefore, “positive ageing” means that the old people will not waken China’s production power but add new force to China’s development.

 

Dr. Andrew Mason, a demography expert from University of Hawaii, puts forward the idea of “second-time population dividend”, which is mainly created by old people.

 

Prof. Mu Guangzong from Beijing University prefers to call “second-time population dividend” as “ageing population dividend”. He stresses the importance of “positive ageing”, which can bring “ageing population dividend” into full action.

 

China’s 12^th Five-year Plan states that complete and consummate aged care system will be built in the next five years. In addition, measures will be taken to improve the aged industry and make use of the resources hidden in the old people. These are the measures of “positive ageing”.