The country's new leaders have pledged to make poverty alleviation one of their top priorities. They might as well start by raising the poverty line. At 625 yuan (HK$585) a year, or less than two yuan a day, the figure is obviously far too low, even taking into account the abject poverty in rural areas.
In fact, when the yardstick was set in 1999, it was already far below the US$1-a-day international standard set by the World Bank. In that year, the poorest 20 per cent of the mainland's population had an annual income of 880 yuan, and 625 yuan was considered adequate to meet basic subsistence needs. But even then, experts reckoned that the poor had to spend 80 per cent of 625 yuan on food, compared with the international standard of 60 per cent.
Now, a professor at the Central Party School has proposed lifting the poverty line to 1,000 yuan to take account of rising incomes across the country. Such an adjustment would raise the number of poor people on the mainland from 28 million to between 150 million and 210 million.
That would be a statistical adjustment that would seem to negate past achievements in reducing the size of the poor population, but one that must be made. It simply does not make sense for the poverty line to fail to go up in line with inflation as the country becomes more affluent.
The Communist Party has set its sights on turning the country into a xiaokang, or well-off, society over the next 20 years. But it cannot be considered a truly well-off society if a substantial proportion of its population continues to live at the subsistence level. Raising the poverty line is the first step that needs to be taken to recognise the reality that a large number of underprivileged people are still living a meagre life.
The Sars outbreak has also highlighted a critical aspect of rural poverty - the lack of affordable health care in the countryside. Many rural families see their savings depleted by the costs of medical treatment. With Sars, the fear is that it may spread unchecked if people are unable to get proper care. The central government has allocated funds to ensure Sars victims are treated free of charge. But an important long-term measure will be to strengthen the country's medical infrastructure and provide affordable health care to the needy everywhere, not just in the cities.
