The elderly deserve better care and happier life

But an information management system will be needed to monitor the situation and allocate the resources, and the information database from the grassroots should include the living conditions, marital status and physical disabilities of senior citizens, so that those needing special care can be identified.

More importantly, once the pension framework is built under the government supervision, the authorities have to ensure that civil society fulfills its social responsibilities. To meet the needs of "empty nest" residents, community care services have to be further classified and better implemented.

Senior citizens living in rural areas need special care, because rural eldercare facilities are ill equipped; for instance, they offer no recreational activities making inmates life dull and monotonous. The authorities, therefore, have to make greater efforts to provide proper care to the elderly in rural areas.

Indeed, residents of some villages have made efforts to provide better care for senior citizens by organizing self-help lodging homes within communities, so that the elderly do not feel lonely. But senior citizens who cannot take care of themselves won't be able to come to the lodging homes, and the absence of a proper support system for such people makes the lodging facilities only a transitional attempt.

Surveys show that senior citizens feel happier and more lively when they are with young people. In some rural areas of China, experiments have shown that senior citizens whose children are not always around feel rejuvenated if they get to meet them or other younger people more often. Celebrating the big festivals with young community volunteers is also a means of communication and interaction that can go a long way in easing anxiety and the feeling of loneliness among the elderly.

And the onus to make senior citizens' life happier and more meaningful lies with the entire society.

Du Peng is a professor of gerontology at Renmin University of China. The article is an excerpt from his interview with China Daily's Zhang Yucheng.