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Private Retirement Homes Increase
Some 1,075 private retirement homes are now accommodating 24,000 Chinese senior citizens, according to statistics from the China National Committee on Aging. China has more than 100 million people over 60 who make up 10 percent of the country's 1.2 billion population. It is estimated that the figure will reach 400 million by the middle of 21st century.
"The traditional ways" of taking care of the aged can no longer satisfy the increasing number, said an official with the committee. Family's responsibility will be partly taken over by society, he said.
Usually the family will take care of parents after their retirement. But with the increasing number of migrants in the country, old people are hardly being taken well care of. Private retirement homes are one of the ways available to those who have no families.
At present, the State-run welfare homes for senior citizens and collective-run old-people's homes have accommodated almost one million aged people.
"Communities should help support the old," Premier Zhu Rongji called in his government's report early this year.
A program aiming to improve welfare among the elderly was launched this year by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
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