China gears up to win battle against poverty by 2020

By Chang Qin from People’s Daily

China is facing an arduous poverty alleviation task as it aims to extricate 30 million rural residents out of poverty, said by Han Jun, a Chinese official  in a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on Monday.

 

As the deputy director of the office of the central agricultural work leading group,  he also pointed out that the difficulty of the tasks would go up with time, and each year the government would aim to eliminate impoverished population by over 10 million.

 

There is still space for improvement in accountability and implementation in poverty alleviation efforts, Han added when introducing the recent-released guideline on winning the battle against poverty by 2020 together with Ou Qingping, the deputy chief of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

 

He elaborated that the government needed to make more targeted measures, abandon formalism and bureaucratism, as well as punished those who had  fabricated statistics and misappropriated poverty relief funds.

 

“Implementation” is the highlight of the guideline, Han noted, adding that every task in the document has its correspondingly initiating and executing departments.

 

The guideline focuses on extremely poor regions and special impoverished groups, the toughest part of the poverty alleviation tasks, he said, further pointing out that it requires the government to offer policy support for these regions, which is another highlight of the document.

 

In addition, the guideline stresses that solid efforts must be made for the groundwork of poverty alleviation, calling for more accuracy in the confirmation of impoverished households and their deregistration.

 

According to the guideline, top-level design must be reinforced to win the tough battle against poverty in the next three years.

 

The document requires policy makers to focus on extremely impoverished regions and special impoverished groups, improve development conditions for impoverished regions and address the special demands of people in these areas.

 

Stressing the importance of improved policies and effective measures, the document requires efforts to enhance targeted alleviation measures at the level of each village, each family and each individual, and accelerate infrastructure construction in impoverished regions.

 

The document says that planning and coordination must be strengthened, and the government should enhance its support for multiple areas including finance, land, human resources and technology, to mobilize the whole society to conquer poverty.

 

“Statistics shows that most of the 30 million registered poor people are seniors, sickened, and disabled. Over 40 percent and 14 percent of them are poor-stricken because of illness and physical disabilities respectively, and seniors above the age of 65 account for more than 16 percent of the total,” said Ou.

 

With further implementation of poverty alleviation, the ratio of such special groups will go higher and higher, Ou noted, adding that it would take a very high cost to eliminate such extreme poverty.

 

Many of the poor from such groups are not able or conditioned to work, and there is also no industry to help them out. As a result, changes must be made since the development-oriented approaches will no longer suit the situation.

 

Against such backdrop, to tune the development-oriented policy to the combination of development and security is a clear-cut requirement raised by the guideline.

 

This doesn’t mean China will just provide all the poor with basic living allowances, but it will establish a comprehensive security mechanism for those who have completely or partially lost their capacity to work and are not able to shake off poverty through businesses, based on social security, social aid and social welfare systems and supported by charity and social workers, Ou highlighted.

 

The Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, in the Decision on Winning the Fight Against Poverty issued three years ago, wrote that by 2020, the country is committed to ensuring that the impoverished rural population has stable access to adequate food and clothing, compulsory education, basic medical services and housing, and to achieving indices of major basic public services close to the national average level.

 

Han said that such goal is totally in line with China’s national conditions and is achievable. The country will focus more on the goal in the next three years and reach the standard in the 2015 Decision.

 

The stable access to compulsory education, basic medical services and housing must be correctly understood, Han pointed out, elaborating that the country should mainly offer 9-year compulsory education to children from impoverished families, rather than full-range free schooling.

 

The country should offer basic medical services to impoverished population, enabling them to receive timely treatment of severe and chronic diseases and lowering their medical expenses down to a reasonable level, rather than a bulk billing that applies to all diseases, explained by Han.

 

He added that satisfing the basic demand for living for impoverished people, does not mean to refurbish their old houses into big and luxurious ones .

 

To ensure a precise grasp of the standard, the guideline proposes to cancel irrelevant tasks assigned in the name of poverty alleviation which are prevalent in many departments and industries. As a result, the tasks that go beyond the demand of the 2015 Decision will all be abolished.

 

 

未来3年 打赢脱贫攻坚战

人民日报记者 常钦

 

国新办20日举行新闻发布会，中央农村工作领导小组办公室副主任韩俊、国务院扶贫开发领导小组办公室副主任欧青平介绍《中共中央国务院关于打赢脱贫攻坚战三年行动的指导意见》有关情况，并回答记者提问。

 

韩俊介绍，我国脱贫攻坚面临的任务仍然十分艰巨。未来3年，3000万左右农村贫困人口需要脱贫，越往后难度越大，平均每年需要减贫1000万人以上。扶贫工作中还存在责任不落实、工作不到位、措施不精准、形式主义官僚主义、数字脱贫虚假脱贫、扶贫资金违纪违规使用等问题。

 

文件最大的亮点是“行动”二字。指导意见的每一项任务都有牵头部门、都有负责部门，是个行动指导意见。文件最核心的理念是一定要聚焦深度贫困地区和特殊贫困群体。现在脱贫攻坚最难的就是深度贫困地区，各项政策对深度贫困地区要倾斜，这是文件的又一个突出亮点。此外，强调要把脱贫攻坚的基础性工作做得更实。贫困户的识别、退出一定要做得精准。

 

指导意见提出：实施好打赢脱贫攻坚三年行动，一要进一步完善顶层设计。特别是强调各项政策要聚焦深度贫困地区和特殊贫困群体，要着力改善贫困地区的发展条件、着力解决深度贫困地区群众的特殊困难。二要进一步强化政策措施。从10个方面强化各项到村到户到人的精准帮扶举措，要从4个方面加快补齐贫困地区基础设施的短板。三要进一步加强统筹协调。加强财政、金融、土地、人才和科技等各个方面的支撑保障，动员全社会力量合力攻坚。

 

“根据建档立卡的数据分析，3000多万建档立卡贫困人口中大多数都是老病残等特殊群体，因病、因残致贫比例分别超过40%、14%。65岁以上的老年人的比例超过16%。”欧青平说，随着脱贫攻坚不断深入，这些特殊贫困群体的比例会越来越高，贫困程度很深，减贫的成本非常高，脱贫的难度也很大。

 

这些特殊贫困群体，很多都不具备自我发展能力和条件，无业可扶，没有产业能带动，同时自己也无力可扶，开发式扶贫难以发挥作用，必须调整攻坚的打法。从以开发式扶贫为主向坚持开发式和保障性扶贫相统筹转变，这也是这次中央文件提出的明确要求。

 

同时，欧青平表示，保障性扶贫并不是对剩下的贫困人口采取低保一兜了之的方式，而是重点针对那些完全丧失劳动能力或部分丧失劳动能力，且无法依靠产业就业帮扶脱贫的贫困人口，建立以社会保险、社会救助、社会福利制度为主体，以慈善帮扶、社工助力为辅助的综合保障体系。

 

2015年，中共中央国务院制定《关于打赢脱贫攻坚战的决定》，明确到2020年要稳定实现农村贫困人口不愁吃、不愁穿，义务教育、基本医疗、住房安全有保障，贫困地区基本公共服务主要领域的指标要接近全国平均水平。韩俊说，这个标准符合中国国情和承受能力，今后3年，要把脱贫攻坚工作聚焦到“两不愁、三保障”上来，严格按照这个标准脱贫攻坚。

 

“其中，‘三保障’的内容需要准确把握。”韩俊指出，义务教育有保障，就是要保障贫困家庭的孩子能够接受九年制义务教育，确保他们有学上，上得起学，不是上什么学都包起来、都免费；基本医疗有保障，就是要保障贫困人口的基本医疗需求，确保贫困人口患了大病、慢性病等得到及时救治，他的医药费负担应该降低到合理水平，基本医疗有保障不是看什么病都不花钱；住房安全有保障，保障贫困人口的住房基本条件，不是把他的房拆了盖大房、盖好房。

 

当前脱贫攻坚工作，既不能降低扶贫标准，也不能擅自拔高标准。文件提出要取消行业部门与脱贫攻坚无关的搭车任务。有的地方搭车任务很多，每个部门、每个行业都借脱贫攻坚提一些考核要求，现在要进行清理，取消超出“两不愁、三保障”标准的考核指标。