Research On The Rural Old-Age Insurance In Gansu Province

The aging of population has been intensifying year by year since China stepped into an old-age society in 1999, with the situation in rural area even being worse than that in urban area. However, due to the dual structure in urban and rural economy, the rural old-age insurance has never been paid to enough attention it deserves, and thus lacks support of policies and funds for a quite long time. Since Gansu province, which is located in the backward region of western China, is economically underdeveloped, and consequently the government cannot devote more energy to rural old-age insurance here, it is obvious that the construction of rural old-age insurance in Gansu province lags behind. What makes the situation even worse is that the function of traditional way of supporting the old by family and farming land weakens dramatically, which causes the senior citizens in rural areas to face adverse conditions of no maintain and no person to depend on. Therefore, the system of rural old-age insurance must be established and completed with no delay under such a circumstance. Rural old-age insurance has functions such as ensuring the basic life of the old, guaranteeing the reproduction of labor force, sustaining the social equability and promoting the social stability. Income discrepancy in rural areas can be reduced, extreme poverty can be eliminated in terms of the systems, and urban-rural gap can also be narrowed down to some extent by establishing and completing the system of rural old-age insurance, which is reasonably been regarded as the basic premise for realizing the agricultural modernization and constructing a harmonious countryside, and which is of great significance to the building of new socialist countryside and solving of the three rural issues, that is, issues concerning agriculture, countryside and farmers. However, the backwardness of Gansu's economy, limited financial capacity of local governments, relatively low income level of famers, and insufficient awareness of participating insurance all together lead to a low insurance coverage rate of the rural old-age insurance in Gansu province for a considerable long time. Meanwhile, there exist a lot of problems in executing this insurance system here in Gansu province because of both historical reasons and realistic reasons. It was the successful implementation of pilot program for new-type rural old-age insurance in 2009 that turned over a new leaf for the pursuit of establishing an advanced rural old-age insurance in China, and that brought new hope along with opportunities to this pursuit too. The author of this thesis analyzes the data about farmers'awareness and the actual state of participating insurance, which is collected from the sample survey made in part of rural areas in Gansu province, finds out the problems existing in the practice of rural old-age insurance and their causes, and comes up with some countermeasures with reference to the similar experience both at home and abroad, looking forward to making a contribution to the development and improvement of rural old-age insurance in Gansu province. Only by putting emphasis on the system of rural old-age insurance can we ensure the smooth progress of it, change the present situation of it, make an achievement of letting all of the old in Gansu province have life materials and supporters to depend on, and thus promote the harmonious development of both economy and society in Gansu province.