Chinanews, Beijing, Mar. 14 – With the Chinese government's hard efforts, hundreds of millions of people in China have shaken off poverty during the past two decades. However, there are still 21 million people who still live in poor conditions. Most of them live in rural areas and are perplexed by problems of education, pension, and medical service. The Chinese government now tries to tackle these problems.

 

This year, some 150 million children in rural areas are going to receive compulsory and free education. For children from poor families, the government will provide them textbooks free of charge and for resident students, the government will subsidize their living expenses. These items will cost the government 28 billion yuan.

 

In China’s rural areas, most people raise sons in the hope that their life in old age will be taken care of by them. In the past, only those who are incapable of working and have no income source were able to get relief from the government. Those lucky ones were, only urbanites, who could enjoy such welfare benefits.

 

Starting from 2007, the central government will allocate some 3 billion yuan in order to set up a minimum living allowance scheme in rural areas.

 

In 2006, the government worked with farmers in over half of the counties in China to set up a new rural cooperative healthcare program in China’s rural areas. The program now covers 410 millon farmers and in order to build up this program, the central government has spent 4.27 billion yuan. The new healthcare system aims to alleviate the problems of farmers who have become poor due to some illness.

 

As the central government fiscal revenues increase, it is expected that the three major problems that bother most farmers will be solved in future.