Society

More disabled receive government assistance in 2010

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-04-07 19:36

BEIJING- A total of 14.51 million needy people with disabilities in China received government assistance in 2010, a year-on-year increase of 7.4 percent from 2009, according to a statement of China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF) issued Thursday.

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Among them, about 74 percent were living in rural areas, the statement said.

Latest statistics show China has more than 83 million people with disabilities.

According to the CDPF statement, about 4.41 million urban disabled residents and 17.5 million rural ones were employed as of 2010.

Among the urban disabled employees, 2.83 million were covered by the country's social security programs including employment, health care, pension and housing insurance.

In the countryside, 96 percent of the disabled people have rural basic medical insurance.

Wang Xinxian, CDPF vice chairman, has told Xinhua in a separate interview that public services and assistance to disabled people still did not met their needs.

In the next five years, more efforts will be made to increase the assistance to needy people with disabilities and include more of them in social security programs, he said.

More resources will be spent in building nursing homes for those suffering serious disabilities, he said.