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Lottery
boost for China's elderly
BBC News, August 25, 2000
China's elderly population is expected to reach 31% by 2050 China is to launch its first ever nationwide lottery on 1 September, to
raise revenue for the country's rapidly increasing elderly population,
national media reports say. According
to the China Daily, between 500m and 1bn yuan ($60-120m) worth of tickets
will be sold during the initial phase of the lottery which runs until the
end of the year. Officials
say the aim of the lottery is to improve the living standards of China's
130 million-strong elderly population.
Under
the lottery rules each ticket will cost 2 yuan ($0.24), giving four
opportunities to win a weekly jackpot of 1 million yuan ($120,000) -
that's approximately 150 times the average annual income. Just
under one fifth of ticket buyers can expect to win some sort of prize. At
present the elderly make up just over 10% of the population but with the
changing balance of young and old it is predicted that figure will rise to
more than 31% by the year 2050. Providing
care
These
changing demographics, largely a result of China's strict one-child
policy, are already placing a strain on the working population. A
growing number of single young people find themselves faced with the
daunting prospect of caring for parents and four grandparents - a
phenomenon known as a 4-2-1 family. With
the communist welfare system fast disintegrating under the pressure of
economic reforms, many people are finding it increasingly hard to provide
care for their elders. Those
that can afford it have begun to transfer their traditional
responsibilities of looking after their relatives at home to private
nursing institutions - a move which has itself sparked some resentment. By
the year 2030 officials estimate that care for an estimated 300 million
elderly will consume a full 10% of national income. Job
opportunities Without
further action being taken, experts say the burden of caring for a greying
population could begin to have a major impact on the speed of China's
development. Announcing
the launch of the new lottery Wang Baiquan, deputy general manager of the
China Welfare Lottery Issuing Centre, said approximately 53% of the cash
raised would be used for prize money and the rest would go to welfare
coffers. "Another
advantage of issuing welfare lottery tickets is that we can create tens of
thousands of job opportunities for laid-off workers," the China Daily
quoted him as saying.
Copyright © 2002 Global
Action on Aging |
