A Sociological Rearch on Poverty in China1 6
6.1 The general characteristics
17岁那年的雨季
6.1.1 Ethnic characteristics of poor people
309 China is a big country with a rich diversity of cultures consisting of 56 ethnic minorities. This diversity is often hidden becau 90% of China’s population belongs to the Han nationality, and only 10% to all other minority peoples in the citizenry. Due to historical reasons, most of the minority people live on the frontiers with scarce natural resources. Undoubtedly, they usually live in poverty.
Table 6.1: The occurrence rate of poverty in the areas where minorities are highly reprented in the population (1996)
Occurrence rate of poverty Provinces Number of Poor People
in the rural areas (million)
The whole nation 919.4 6.3
Guizhou 29.8 12.8 Yunnan 33.5 22.9 Xizang 2.1 10.1 Guangxi 39.0 6.4 Neimenggu 14.2 9.3
Shanxi 27.5 17.5 Gansu 19.7 22.7
Qinghai 3.3 17.7 Ningxia 3.7 18.5 Xinjiang 8.8 27.4 Sources: The Word Bank, 2001, China conquers rural poverty, China financial & economic publishing, p26
310 It is obvious that, at prent, poverty is concentrated in provinces where reprentation of ethnic minorities is well above the national average. China’s State Commission of Ethnic Affairs data shows that in the mid-1990s, three-fourth of poor counties in autonomous minority areas had a per capita annual income below ¥400, and four-fifth of counties in autonomous minority areas had a per capita annual income below ¥300 (The World Bank, 2001, p31). According to a poverty monitoring report prepared by the Rural Social and Economic Investigation Group (RSEIG), State Statistical Bureau of China, the average income level per capita of the farmers in the minority areas are much lower than that of the old liberation areas assisted by the government, though higher than that of the frontiers (SSB, 2000).
1This report was written originally in Chine by the author, then it was translated into English by Dr.
直销人才Xiong Yuegen ( a lecturer also from Department of Sociology, Peking University ) upon the request of
企业文化建设方案the author. Needless to say, all the errors in the report of English version remain to the translator.
Table 6.2 per capita annual income of the farmers in ethic minority areas compared with other areas (¥/person)
1998
1999 Areas 1997
The whole country 2090.0 2162.0 2210.0
The old liberation areas 1303.8 1393.2 1420.1
The frontiers 1034.8 1072.5 1108.7
The ethic minority areas 1137.7 1192.0 1234.9
Sources: Rural Social and Economic Investigation Group, SSB, 2000, A rural poverty monitoring report
in China, p12
311 Moreover, the minority regions are poorer compared to other areas in the same province. For example, the per capita annual income of poor counties in Sichuan Province was ¥1,032 in 1997, and meanwhile the same indicator of three poorest counties that are minority areas was only ¥720--¥860. In Simao County, Yunnan Province, the minority people occupied 61% of the total population of the county, but it shared 90% of the total absolute poor population (The World Bank, 2001:31). In Guangxi Autonomous Minority Region, all the 12 autonomous minority counties are poor areas, which shared 70% of minority population of the region.
312 Since the initiation of " 8-7 Poverty Alleviation Plan ", the government at each level had paid great attention to tackle down the poverty in the minority areas with a high priority in policy implementation. However, owing to historical and natural reasons, the minority people have been strongly burdened with poverty.
纠缠是什么意思6.1.2 The livelihood structure of poor groups
313 In May 2001, China publicized the number of poor people in the country--- there were totally 30 million poor people living under an income level of ¥625 which was ud
as a poverty line. But so far, the government has not given the overall data about the poor. According
to the monitoring report of RSEIG, in 1999, the average annual pure income
per capita in the nationally designated poor counties was very low. The average annual expenditure of each peasant was spent on family business and living expenditure. In the living expenditure, developmental expenditure was very scant.
Table 6.3 Sources and structure of annual pure income per capita in the nationally designated poor counties (1999)
sources of income Amount (¥) Proportion (%)
wages 339.0 25.1 family business 964.0 71.6
Transferring income 28.0 2.1
Property 17.0 1.2
Annual pure income per capita 1348.0 100.0
Sources: SSB, 2000, p17
点成面Table 6.4: Expenditure and structure by each peasant in the nationally designated poor counties ( (1999)
Distribution Amount (¥) Proportion (%)
Food 625 60 Clothing 63 6 Habitation 119 11 Houhold equipment 43 4
Health 44 4 Transport and communication 27 3
Education and recreation 104 10
Other commodities and rvices 19 2
梦想从学习开始
Gross expens 1044 100
Sources: SSB, 2000, p18
314 According to Engel's coefficient, the farmers in the areas live in an absolute poverty and the livelihood of tho in the nationally designated poor counties was even wor.
6.1.3 The socio-economic characteristics of poor groups
(1) Bigger Houholds but Less Labour Power
315 Official data shows that poor houholds in China are significantly bigger than non-poor houholds but, becau of a higher dependency rate within poor houholds (ie., the number of children, elderly, and infirmed or injured as a proportion of family size), they have less labour power able to participate actively in wage or houhold production.
Table 6.5 Family structure and population quality in the poor houholds compared with the non-poor houholds
Indexes The poor houholds The non-poor houholds
69.9 36.5 proportion of family size
at least five family members (%)
Burden coefficient of labour power 1.64 1.5
Illiterate rate of labour power (%) 22.1 8.9
88.7 96.9 Enrollment rate of children
during age 12-14 (%)
Short rate of labour power(%) 14.1 2.5
Sources: SSB, 2000, p18
316 There is also a significant difference between poor and non-poor houholds in quality and quantity of housing. In poor houholds crowding is a problem, with room space for each family member limited 14.1 square meters in poor houholds compared to 24.2 square meters in non-poor peasant houholds. Bad on a survey conducted by the National Ethnic Commission (NEC) in 2001, 50.9% of peasant families were found to live
in homes constructed of mud or bamboo. From our investigation, an absolute number of poor peasant families lived in mud-stone or grass-made hous, and some peasants’ hous have neither windows nor doors. Quality of housing is often a very effective poverty targeting criterion when one wants to identify the poorest hous in a poor village.
Box 6.1 Zhang’s family in Sandaogou Village, Xiaobazi Town, Fengning County
There are five people in Zhang’s family: Zhang, his mother, wife and two children (15-year-old daugh
ter and 8-year-old son ). A couple of years ago, the flooding destroyed Zhang’s lf-constructed mud-brick cottage. Now, they are living in the Zhang’s cond old brother’s cottage in the town of the county, which was also made of mud-brick and neither walls nor yards could be en. The doors of the hou were made to be half-size. In the hou, furniture was scant.
(2) Health Problems Critical to Chronic Poverty
317 In the cour of CPAP field tests in Fengning County, Hebei Province, it was found that the health status of critical family members is critical to the ability of rural houholds to escape poverty. Among poor houholds investigated, the general health of farmers was found to be very bad, with 20-50% of adult women confined and unable to work for at least 3 months due to rious illness. Coming to understand the sources of the illness will be important to ensuring the quality of the human resources available to poor houholds is upgraded to levels where houhold lf-reliance is a realistic achievable outcome.
318 Hard core poverty in China is also associated with the burdens of human disability. In the “ 8-7 Poverty Alleviation Plan ”, the government took specific measures to help disabled people in rural areas, including provision of loan funds for rehabilitation and poverty alleviation activities suitable to t
he disabled. The initiatives have resulted in improvements in the livelihood of disabled people, but poverty of the disabled remains a concern for national public policy. During the “Ninth-Five-Year Plan”, 13.72 million disabled people received assistance from the government and 8.29 million are now judged as having sustainable access to adequate food, clothing and other basic needs. However, at the end of 2000, there were still 6.87 million of disabled people awaiting assistance due to backtracking to poverty etc. (China Disabled Persons Federation, 2001:12-15). In the poorest rural areas, disabled people remain the most vulnerable group who can hardly dependent on social relief. Consider, for example, in Jiangsu Province, one of China’s more developed areas, more than 60% of the poor are disabled people (The Word Bank, 2001).
(3) Gender and poverty
319 It is very important to consider the relationship between gender and poverty. However, the systematic data of such a relationship have not been sufficiently collected becau the country statistics of China state is bad on the unit of family. There is a vexing problem of feminization of poverty in the poor rural areas. For example, women are easily deprived of the opportunity of education, the loss rate of girls’ schooling is higher than that of the boys’. In Shanxi province, the loss rate of schooling of the rural girls was 70% and the illiterate rate of adult women was almost 70
% (Zhao Junchen,
闪光皮皮1997: 428 ). Bad on a survey on the rural women’s health status and nutrition in 13 autonomous minority regions, 75% of women had been malnourished. In Lancang County, 95% of the rural women of Lagu Minority have been suffered in anemia (Zhao Junchen, 1997: 443 ).
6.2 Caus of poverty
6.2.1 Employment structure and poverty
320 In rural China, family business and labor become two major sources of houhold income. The statistical data indicated the evident difference of employment structure and economic status between the poor houholds and the non-poor houholds.
Table 6.6 Employment structure and income structure in the poor houholds compared with the non-poor houholds (1998)
Indexes the poor houholds (%) the non-poor houholds (%)
86.4 76.3 Proportion of family business
income
79.0 65.0
Among them： proportion of
agriculture income
58.4 45.0
Among them： proportion of
planting income
9.3 14.9 Proportion of non-family
business income
Sources: Rural Social and Economic Investigation Group, SSB, 2000, A rural poverty monitoring report
暖和读音in China
321 For tho poor peasant houholds, there was a higher percentage of family business income and a lower percentage of non-family business income (SSB, 2000 ). In 1998, 84.1% of poor rural labor forces relied on traditional agriculture and only 12.5% of
the labor force went outside to work as wage-earners (Xu Feiqiong, 2000). Country Poverty Monitoring Center of China data indicated that, in 1998, 92.6% of rural houholds engage in agriculture among the 255 nationally designated poor counties in autonomous minority areas. The rural houholds relying on traditional agriculture were more likely to be poor owing to the low production and fluctuating price of crops.
322 According to the findings of the pilot study conduced by the Rearch Group of this project in Fengning County, there were various kinds of employment for different types
of houholds in the poor rural areas. The poorest houholds with elderly or chronically-ill family members could solely rely on farming. The poorer houholds with male adults usually could have extra energies to manage sideline production or work outside. The well-off houholds with sufficient labors could successfully manage their farming and sideline production as well. There was a high proportion of the male adult who has worked outside. Some of the houholds even could manage their own business.
