A Comparative Study On The Living Conditions Of The Left - Behind And Non - Left - Behind Old People In The Western Rural Areas

With the development of economy and the constant increase of the level of urbanization, the continuous deepening of the aging of population has a great impact on the life of the elderly in rural areas. However, in the western part of our country, the development of economy is still in a relatively lower position, due to the geographical constraints and original weakness of the economic situation. This results in large numbers of young laborers leaving their hometown to seek fortune in the outside world and thus leads a great number of elderly people to be left behind in the western area. In addition, because China’s security system to the rural elderly people is still not perfect, the majority of the country families depend on their traditional way of family support. However, the young people’s going out to develop will certainly have a great impact on the current way of old-age support, thus the problem turns up that it is difficult for the elderly people to have themselves supported. Meanwhile, the present old-age security level is low, and it is difficult to meet the demands of those who are left behind. If it is not solved as soon as possible, the problem of old-age support for them will become a serious social problem, therefore, the analysis over the living condition of the left-behind elderly is of great practical significance.This survey report consists of five chapters. Chapter I mainly describes the basic conditions by using the data which were gained through field researches on the urban area of the three provinces in China: Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan, and elaborates the significance,the background, the situation of the research at home and abroad, the theoretical support, the innovation points research design and etc. In Chapter II, based on the research data collected from the field research, and also Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, divides the demands of the urban elderly into three sections, namely economic demands, care needs and spiritual needs. Meanwhile, it distinguishes each group which contributes support to the urban elderly according to the Preface-structure theory which is contained in Social Network Theory, and it tries to make clear which group the urban elderly rely most on when facing problems of the above three sections. In Chapter III, the researcher makes difference analysis to the data gathered from his research, and manages to explain whether the causes of the distinctions existing in the life of the urban left-behind elderly and non-left-behind elderly comes from each individual family or society. In Chapter IV, the researcher tries to raise some reasonable suggestions, from the different angles of the government, community, family and each individual, on how to solve the problems existing in the life of the urban elderly, for example, that professional pension nursing homes should be founded, the function of the home old-age care should be strengthened, financial expenditure should be increased, the social security system should be perfected and so on. The researcher also hopes to provide certain references for the social security system for urban elderly in the Western areas in China. In Chapter V, the researcher makes an conclusion to the research he makes to the issue.