Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 09, 2003
China Helping Handicapped Persons Achieve Equal Rights: Deng Pufang
The Chinese government is working hard to help the country's handicapped population achieve the goal of "equality, participation and sharing" and to enjoy as affluent a life as others.
The Chinese government is working hard to help the country's handicapped population achieve the goal of "equality, participation and sharing" and to enjoy as affluent a life as others.
Deng Pufang, chairman of the China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF), made the remark in a work report delivered to the Fourth Congress of the CDPF, which opened in Beijing Monday.
Deng urged people not to forget the fact that currently there are 60 million persons with disabilities and these people have over 200 million family members. The handicapped group want to enjoy an affluent life with the rest of the Chinese people, he noted.
Although people with disabilities only make up five percent of the national population, the number of the jobless among handicapped people accounts for one-third of the total, Deng said,adding that the living conditions are lower than the average levelof the total population, he said.
In the first 20 years of this century, China will try to improve the basic conditions of disabled people, respect and protect their rights, improve their ethical and cultural quality, make their development parallel with others, enjoy better public services, and improve the law concerning the protection of the handicapped, according to the CDPF chairman.
As different areas in the country enjoy different stages of development, Deng expressed his hope that developed cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Tianjin take the lead in helping disabled people reach the goal of prosperity in the near future.