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Int'l organization urges for more care for elderly people

Xinhua, September 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

There are currently around 901 million people aged 60 or above worldwide, representing 12.3 percent of the global population, a report done by an international NGO noted, calling for more care for the elderly while pushing for sustainable development.

People over 60 now outnumber children under 5, and by 2050 they will outnumber those under 15, according to the report released Wednesday by the influential London-based HelpAge International. By 2030, they will account for 16.5 percent of the global population.

Switzerland tops the ranking of 96 countries and regions on their older people's well-being, considering such indicators as income security, health status, capacity and the enabling environment. Afghanistan remains at the bottom.

The report, which titled 2015 Global AgeWatch Index, pointed out that inequality in health, education and income levels of older people is increasing between top-ranked, high-income countries and bottom-ranked, predominantly low-income countries.

The report lauded the efforts that the Chinese government has made in improve the well-being of the elderly, saying that the integrated social security and medical care have been improving for the elderly in China, which has 209 million elderly people, the largest such population in the world.

The need for long-term care among older Chinese people have led China to aiming for a comprehensive and integrated long-term care strategy, it said.

"Establishing China National Committee on Aging facilitated a growing policy focus on the rights of older people," said the report.

It showed that China's rural social pension scheme introduced in 2009 resulted in 89 million people receiving pension payments for the first time.

In 2013, a national law was amended to protect the rights of older people, mandating local governments to provide social security, medical and long-term care to old citizens, according to the report.

"China increased pension and health insurance coverage, encouraged volunteers to care for their elders and invested in community centers for older people," it said.

The upcoming UN summit is going to adopt a new development agenda which will endorse Sustainable Development Goals as its core to guide development of the international community over the next 15 years.

The proposed goals include several targets that aim to promote the older people's well-being. Endi