Saturday October 27, 2007
Better deal for Shanghai old folks
SHANGHAI BUND BY CHOW HOW BAN
Senior citizens in Shanghai enjoy a host of benefits including free medical check-ups, discounted hospital medical fees, better subsistence allowances and even funeral allowances. Now the city is giving the old folks free public transport.
OCT 19 was the Chong Yang Festival, senior citizens’ day in China, and it was a good time as any to give Shanghai old folks some good news.
Starting from that day, senior citizens aged 70 and above can take public transport, including the Metro train, for free during non-peak hours.
Convenient transport: Senior citizens and other commuters waiting in line for the bus at a stop in Shanghai. All they need to do is show the bus driver and train station personnel their “red card,” a social security card, as proof of their age.
The festival falls on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. It’s an auspicious day that symbolises longevity.
Since 1989, China has declared the day as a special occasion to pay respects to the elderly.
As many senior citizens have yet to obtain their “red card,” they can still use other relevant documents to enjoy the free service until the grace period ends on Dec 31.
Many people have lauded the move by the Shanghai municipal government and are happy that the government has extended its social security policy to include a wider range of benefits for the elderly.
“Shanghai is faced with the phenomenon of families becoming smaller and more senior citizens living on their own,” Shanghai municipal government spokesman Jiao Yang said at a recent press conference to announce the free transport policy.
“This is one of our ways to show our support and care for this group of people. This policy will benefit them.”
Shanghai is an ageing society with probably the most number of senior citizens in China.
The metropolis has more than 1.55 million residents aged 70 and above, accounting for 11.2% of its total population.
There are 468,000 residents aged 80 and above while about 1.2 million residents are between the ages of 60 and 70.
The city has a population of 13.68 million permanent residents and another five million transient residents.
Public buses and light rail transit trains are popular with the elderly, who rely heavily on these modes of transport.
An average of 7.5 million people take transit buses every day while the five Metro lines serve more than 2.1 million riders daily.
The free rides, however, do not cover the ultra high-speed Maglev trains connecting Pudong International Airport and the Longyang Metro train station, airport shuttle service and tourist buses.
Checks at the train stations and bus stops in the city showed that the free ride system had been carried out without any hitch.
Bus drivers were screening senior citizens’ identity cards smoothly; notices on the free service had been put up at bus stops and stations and designated lanes had been opened at train stations for eligible folks.
In fact, the free-ride policy is one of the few measures taken by the government throughout the year to improve its social security policy for all residents across the society.
Each villager in the suburbs will get a minimum subsistence of 85 yuan (RM38) on top of his monthly old-age pension, compared with city pensioners who receive 60 yuan (RM27) more.
Besides that, the elderly do not need to pay check-up fees and are charged discounted medical fees at hospitals.
The 234 healthcare centres in the city have served more than 127,000 old folks and another 220 centres have been set up to carry out activities for them.
Homes of 16,500 of the 20,000 senior citizens, who live on their own, have already been installed with warning systems to alert the relevant authorities in the event of an emergency.
Other benefits include funeral allowances.
Besides the free rides, the Shanghai municipal government has doubled the transit fare discount.
While the policy is well received, the public wants an expansion of such benefits to give residents more reasons to use public transport.
Department director Li Wenhui said the department would take into consideration their suggestions.
It looks like more good news is in store for Shanghai commuters.
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