China is the the world's most populous country with a population of 1.27 billion and has the highest percentage of people suffering from poverty. Somewhere between 15 and 31 million people live in poverty. This could be the result of many factors. One of the main reasons could be because the national poverty line is low by international standards, meaning that many more people live close to poverty.
China's transition from a centrally planned to a globalised market economy has helped reduce chronic poverty and disadvantage, but also created new forms of vulnerability and poverty. Although they are coming up with ways to reduce the percentage of people on poverty, it is only benefiting parts of China.
Another reason for China having such a high poverty rate is the ongoing restructuring of state-owned enterprises. The state sector lost 31 million jobs. Not enough new jobs in the non-state sector have yet been created and an estimated 14.6 million are without a full-time job - an unemployment rate of 12.3 per cent
4.2 million Chinese children live in absolute poverty and 8.7 million live in disadvantaged conditions. Many parents can not afford the cost to send their children to school or medical insurance or medical bills.
Poverty is really hindering children from being able to develop. Many countries are too busy focusing on the dollar amount that parents bring home that they are failing to look at the children.
References
Poverty Among Children in Urban China: A survey of poverty-affected families in three cities
Crystal,
ReplyDeleteThat is so sad that many children are unable to go school in China, that really does place them at a disadvantage. When I think of certain families I know from China, I know they really push their kids hard in school and have high expectations. I wonder if this is connected to the fact that they don't take education for granted the way that we often do in this country. Education really is the greatest gift of all, with knowledge, anybody can change their lives for the better. I love the saying "keep of educating yourself, knowledge is power!"