Wednesday, February 21, 2001, updated at 07:59(GMT+8)
Life
More Should Be Done for Handicapped
State Councilor Ismail Amat Tuesday called for greater support for China's disabled people, especially in the underdeveloped western region.
Governments at all levels have made great efforts to ensure the accomplishment of all tasks in this regard set for 1996-2000, and have brought real benefits to the country's 60 million handicapped people, he said.
The state councilor, who also heads a State Council committee to coordinate work concerning disabled persons, made these remarks at the committee's ninth plenary session, which was attended by officials from 34 central government departments.
Deng Pufang, chairman of the China Disabled Persons' Federation, told the meeting that, thanks to the government efforts, more than 4.3 million handicapped people recovered their health to various degrees, 8.29 million of the 15 million rural handicapped people escaped poverty, and nearly 80 percent of disabled children entered school in the past five years.