Those left-behind elders who have not left the countryside
Survey on the status quo of the left-behind elders in rural areas: the burden of farming is heavy and psychologically lonely
● The most representative of Chinese agriculture and farmers are those born in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. This group of people has a strong rural complex. They rely on the countryside, land as their main source of livelihood, and agriculture as their main occupation, even if they go out. Come back and won't leave the village
● In order to maintain a basic life, the elderly in rural areas have a relatively high proportion of employment, and they are still the main force for most farming.
Compared with their children before they went out to work, their farming burden has increased, but the remuneration is not much higher.
● The mental emptiness and loneliness of the left-behind elderly in rural areas has become a common phenomenon.
Due to the scattered residence and insufficient development of social organizations, the radiation of elderly activities is limited, especially the elderly living alone in rural areas in deep mountainous areas, which are easily trapped in a self-enclosed state of mind.
□ Our reporter Wen Lijuan
At 8 o'clock in the evening, Li Ensong took out his newly bought smartphone from his pocket. After trying it several times, he dialed the video call of his elder son.
At the end of the video, her son was working overtime, and she quickly said, "It's okay, let's hang up."
Because she just learned to use a smartphone and couldn't find the end button for the call, she swiped the screen with her right index finger for a few seconds before hanging up the video.
Half-arched, holding his right lower abdomen with his hand, Li Ensong walked out of the house and came to the cultural square in the village.
On the square, many villagers sat on the horses and chatted in a circle. They were all parents. She copied her hands and listened for a while and then sat down.
The village where Li Ensong is located is a typical mountain village in Linyi City, Shandong Province.
The villagers here rely on the mountains to eat and grow corn, wheat and other crops.
Most of the young and middle-aged in the village go out to work, and the rest are mostly left-behind elderly. In addition to completing farming, they are often responsible for taking care of themselves and their grandchildren's daily life, medical treatment for illness, and spiritual comfort.
In our country, there are thousands of left-behind old people like Li Ensong in rural areas.
According to the results of the seventh national census in 2020, there are 120 million people aged 60 and over living in rural areas.
Among them, the left-behind elderly account for a large proportion.
According to the investigation results of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 2016, there are about 16 million rural left-behind elderly in my country.
With the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, the second and third agricultural generations have left the soil and unearthed from the village one after another, causing rural families to become increasingly "empty nests".
Liu Shouying, dean of the School of Economics of Renmin University of China and former deputy director of the Rural Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, has been engaged in agricultural research for more than 30 years. The group of people have a heavy rural complex, relying on the village as their home, land as their main source of livelihood, and agriculture as their main occupation.
Due to various factors, many rural elderly people stayed behind to accompany the village and the land.
What are their current living conditions and what difficulties are they facing?
Recently, reporters from the Rule of Law Daily conducted investigations and interviews in many rural areas.
Life
Eating a casual meal a day is the norm
Li Ensong is 61 years old this year and has two sons. After graduating from university, both of them stayed in Beijing to work.
In the past, she and her husband planted yellow tobacco and ginger to support their son’s education. At most, the two planted more than 30 acres of land.
"At that time, what kind of money was planted." Recalling the "highlight moments" many years ago, Li Ensong looked proud: "Every day I get up and down in the dark, and I almost never eat on time. When I catch up with a good year, I can earn a year. More than 100,000 yuan."
The negative impact of overwork all year round on the elderly is huge.
At the end of last year, Li Ensong fell ill with a serious illness and has yet to recover.
The son returned to work in Beijing after taking care of him at home for half a year. He can only rely on herself and her wife for daily life.
From walking slowly on crutches to free activities, Li Ensong spent 3 months.
In order to take care of her wholeheartedly, her husband stopped renting most of the original farmland, leaving only 5 acres of land to grow crops. During the slack, he would do odd jobs in the village to subsidize the family.
"No way, it's not easy for children. It's a bit if you can help them lighten a little burden." At noon on October 4, Li Ensong told reporters while cooking.
The husband’s part-time job takes care of lunch, and Li Ensong only needs to do her food alone.
In less than half an hour, the food was on the table, a bowl of sweet potato porridge and a portion of pickles.
"Eating alone at noon, it is convenient, and then fry some dishes in the evening." She said.
Li Hanlin in the same village also chooses to simply deal with a meal most of the time.
The 81-year-old is busy harvesting and has no time to eat.
"Boom! Boom!" Recently, there was a beating sound around 3 o'clock in the afternoon every day. Li Hanlin appeared on the cultural corridor of the village on time. Here, the red beans he worked so hard to harvest from the field were exposed to him. Peel the beans from their shells before dark.
After a few bites of steamed buns, he started to work.
Without a special rolling tool, he squatted on the ground and beat it up and down with a thick stick, and moved one place after a while. The red beans popped out under his repeated blows, and his beans were everywhere in the promenade.
After finishing all the fights, Li Hanlin got up with his legs on his feet, walked slowly to the end of the promenade, picked up the broom, bends down to sweep the beans on the ground, and then holds them up with both hands and pours them into the nylon bag.
He pointed to the bag, narrowed his eyes into a seam, and said to the reporter with a smile: "This year's harvest is about 100 kilograms. According to this year's price, you can earn 800 yuan."
Li Hanlin's two sons work in Qingdao, Shandong. They usually send him some money, but he refuses to accept them because he "can still be self-sufficient now."
He broke his fingers and calculated an account for the reporter: he planted 3 acres of crops, and the harvest can be used for daily expenses; he planted red beans and mung beans in the poplar forest in the village to increase some extra income, which can be used to pay for the family’s income. People exchanges; the government will also give out pensions and poverty allowances, and the couple have almost 10,000 yuan in income.
The reporter found that in order to maintain a basic life, the elderly in rural areas have a relatively high proportion of employment, and they are still the main force in most farming operations.
Many left-behind elders told reporters that compared with their children before they went out to work, their farming burden has increased, but the remuneration is not much higher.
As early as 2015, the national 1% population sample survey data showed that the main income of 34.36% of rural elderly was labor income; 46.4% depended on family members to support; 7.48% depended on retired pensions; 6.81% depended on minimum living security Pension.
Data from the 2016 China Senior Citizens Social Tracking Survey showed that the average annual income of the rural elderly population in my country was about 9,510 yuan, which was only one-third of the urban elderly population.
Seek medical attention
"Small illness drags down serious illness" is not uncommon
The temperature in Hunan in autumn is very unstable.
On October 7, the temperature dropped sharply. In the cold wind, Jinshan shrank his neck and his knee joints began to hurt again.
He went to the village clinic and bought a box of plasters for 25 yuan.
After returning home after walking for more than 10 minutes, he tore open the package, took out a plaster and put it on his left knee, then smoothed it with both hands.
After getting up and going to the door, he grabbed a gown and put it on the hook, and turned on the TV.
Folding back and half lying on the wicker chair, he peeled off a few peanuts that had just been collected from the ground and threw it into his mouth, chewing and watching TV.
At dinner time, my son called back and asked him how he was doing. He said loudly on the phone: "Don't worry about me, it's okay!"
The village where Jinshan is located is located in the western part of Hunan Province. Most of the young and middle-aged people in the village went to work in the provincial capital of Changsha or Guangdong, Shanghai and other places. Take care of older parents.
"Minor illness drags serious illness" is the common mentality of these old people: some have been suffering from rheumatism for many years. Whenever it is windy and rainy, their legs and feet are unbearable, but they think that "it is not a serious illness, and tolerance will pass"; some have long-term migraine headaches. , But only take some painkillers during the attack; some have suffered from asthma for many years, but they are used to buying Luo Han Guo soaked in water when they are uncomfortable...
Li Ensong's illness was dragged out abruptly in this way.
In the middle of last year, she was already showing signs of discomfort, but she didn't care about it. In addition to the heavy farm work, she only went to the village clinic to prescribe painkillers a few times.
Until the end of last year, her stomach ache was unbearable, and she went to the hospital with her wife. As a result, the doctor gave her a critical illness notice.
"Every time she called home, she reported the good news but not the worries. She didn't tell me until she couldn't bear it and went to the hospital. Fortunately, her condition improved." Li Ensong's son Qin Hua always talked about this. Regretful, he blamed himself for not keeping in touch with his parents frequently, let alone paying close attention to his parents' bodies.
Data from the 2016 China Elderly Social Tracking Survey showed that more than 70% of rural elderly people suffer from chronic diseases of different types and degrees.
However, in recent interviews with reporters, it was discovered that many left-behind elderly people would not easily choose to seek medical treatment even if they knew that they had chronic diseases.
In this regard, Liu Shouying pointed out the reasons: "Although the proportion of medical insurance reimbursements has increased in recent years, some urgently needed rehabilitation care items for chronic diseases have not been included in medical insurance. Primary medical and health service centers often have no rooms, and the combination of medical care and care needs to be implemented. , The rescue of serious illnesses is still a drop in the bucket."
What makes people sad is that although they are unwell, these left-behind elders have to take care of themselves because their children are not around.
Liu Shouying found in the survey that, in fact, the rural left-behind elderly have a stronger need for daily care.
The survey data shows that 8.57% of rural elderly need basic daily care, that is, they need help from others to eat, dress, go to the toilet, go up and down, walk indoors, etc. The average length of care required is more than 4 years; 11.63% of the rural areas Elderly people need help with housework and need care for more than 5 years.
Whether it is basic daily care or instrumental daily care (housework), the needs of the elderly in rural areas are significantly higher than those in urban areas.
"However, on average, about 30% of children have hardly helped elderly parents with housework within a year. Among them, only 6.68% of children who go out help elderly parents with housework at least once a week, and as many as 50.71% of children who go out within a year. Almost never helped my parents with housework." Liu Shouying said.
Jinshan's son Jin Huidong has a deep understanding of this.
After graduating from university, he settled in Changsha and worked in Guangzhou. He returned home a handful of times throughout the year, "not to mention helping his parents with housework."
psychology
Emotional connection is severed and I am lonely
Three or five old people squatted in the corner to enjoy the sun, stay at home and watch TV by themselves... This is a common phenomenon that reporters see when interviewing in rural areas.
With land transfer and age increasing, many elderly people cannot continue farming, and the population of the village has decreased on a large scale, and the social methods they are used to such as chatting and chatting are gradually shrinking.
"Traditional Chinese villages are one family, one generation after another; now, there is no one around the elderly. In the past, the younger generation of the family went out to work, and the children still stayed in the countryside. At least the elderly would cook for their grandchildren and granddaughters. He still has a sense of existence. Now the young parents who are assigned to work have their children with them when they are young. When the children go to junior high school, one person comes back to accompany them. The traditional blood relationship and emotional connection are severed. After these cuts, the elderly are not poor, but extremely lonely." Liu Shouying said.
This is very obvious in Jiang Zhaohong and his wife.
Jiang Zhaohong has two daughters and one son. The eldest daughter is married in Zaozhuang, Shandong, the second daughter is married in Linyi, Shandong, and his son is a doctor in Yantai, Shandong.
After the son got married and had children, his wife was taken to Yantai to help take care of his grandson. Only Jiang Zhaohong was left in the family all year round.
On the afternoon of October 5, the reporter came to Jiang Zhaohong's house and happened to catch up with his wife and came back to "visit relatives".
Jiang Zhaohong was busy in the kitchen cheerfully, "It's been a long time since the family has been popular."
At the entrance of the courtyard where he lives, piles of freshly harvested corn are piled up. The entire yard is covered by a awning. The patio is covered with pumpkins. Next to it is a transparent shelter, which is covered with freshly picked peppers.
These crops were planted by Jiang Zhaohong to pass the time.
"Otherwise, it would be boring to have nothing to do all day in the slack season," Jiang Zhaohong said.
If all the crops are taken care of, he will give himself a job-cleaning.
There are 5 houses in the courtyard, and he cleans them one by one.
One wall in the living room is covered with photos of his sons, daughters, and grandchildren. These photos are the objects he takes care of. “Basically, I wipe them with a rag every two days, and sometimes I mutter a few words to the photos.”
"I haven't seen my son in 3 years, and I still miss them very much." Jiang Zhaohong pointed to his son's picture to show the reporter, a little embarrassed, "It is estimated that everything has changed."
The mentality of the wife is completely different.
She lives with her son’s family every day, is responsible for their daily life, and also urges her grandson to do homework. “Every day I’m too busy to touch the ground, and sometimes I really want to come back for a rest, but I can’t help it. The children are also under great pressure. A little bit of help is a little bit".
Li Ensong, who stayed behind in the countryside, also posted pictures of his sons at home.
Before there was no smart phone, she could only talk to her son once a month or half a month through the elderly phone, but it was too long to see anyone, and she was still panicking.
Some time ago, when my son went home to visit relatives, he bought her a smart phone, downloaded WeChat, and taught her how to use video calls and view "Circle of Friends."
She doesn’t open her son’s dialog box easily, but she has one more task before going to bed every day: to scan the short video first, then click on her son’s "friend circle" to see their daily activity, and then turn off the data flow to sleep. .
"If your child is not around, you will still feel lonely, but don't disturb them if there is nothing to do. They are so busy." Li Ensong said, but still hope that the child can go home and see if there is nothing to do.
Liu Shouying and his team found that the mental emptiness and loneliness of the left-behind elderly in rural areas has become a common phenomenon.
Due to the scattered residence and insufficient development of social organizations, the radiation of elderly activities is limited. Especially the elderly living alone in the rural areas in the deep mountainous areas can easily fall into a self-enclosed state of mind.
Some volunteers reported that the most important job of their home visits is not to provide care services such as housework for the elderly, but to accompany them.
The reporter also learned in the interview that in recent years, the migration of children and the long-term separation of family members have made the rural left-behind elderly feel more lonely, depression has increased, and some elderly people have even become desperate and suicidal.
explore
Vigorously promote "mutual support for the elderly"
Xie Zejiang, party branch secretary of Xiejiahe Village, Kushan Township, Ju County, Rizhao City, Shandong Province, is particularly concerned about the mental state of the left-behind elderly.
Because as early as 2015, two left-behind old people in the village chose to end their lives due to a strong sense of loneliness.
This incident had a great impact on Xie Zejiang.
Xiejiahe Village has a population of 630 people, of whom 20% are over 60 years old, and most of them are left-behind.
How can the life needs and spiritual comfort of these elderly people be met?
Xie Zejiang has been thinking about-"mutual assistance for the elderly" may be an answer.
After the 2017 Spring Festival, Xie Zejiang and other village cadres used the proceeds from the transfer of the village’s land to plan to build a happy courtyard in the village that is equipped with a restaurant, accommodation, washing, leisure and entertainment.
From the start of construction in June 2017 to the start of operation in July 2018, Xie Zejiang and other village officials overcame many difficulties and finally gave the elderly in Xiejiahe Village their own happiness home.
Currently, there are 58 people living in the Xingfuyuan, of which 56 people are over 70 years old.
At noon on October 6, the reporter came to the Xiejiahe Village Xingfuyuan. Some elderly people were sitting on the promenade in the courtyard and chatting.
The reporter saw that there were 21 dormitories in the hospital, including accommodations, restaurants, medical rooms, cultural activities rooms, reception rooms, and reading rooms.
12 o'clock noon is the time for the meal, when the bell rang, the old people lined up into the restaurant with cutlery.
In the restaurant, the tables and chairs are clean and fresh, and the tables are placed with potato shreds, pepper fried pork, celery fried pork, fried tofu, big pot of cabbage, etc.
"Life is very good, free food and lodging, and chat with partners." 74-year-old Yang Deji was the first group of people to stay in Xingfuyuan. Talking about his three years of living here, the old man kept admiring.
Although living in Xingfuyuan, Yang Deji usually does odd jobs in the village, earning 70 yuan a day.
"As long as the elderly are in good health, they can do some work in the village, and if they have something to do, they can feel that they have a sense of existence and value." Xie Zejiang said.
"The construction of a happy home in Xiejiahe Village for the elderly, self-protection, and mutual assistance services not only provides free space for the elderly to live together, take care of each other, and live happily, but also ensure that the material support of the elderly is guaranteed, life care is managed, and spiritual comfort. With support, it relieves the worries of the children of migrant workers." said Wang Defeng, deputy head of Kushan Township.
In 2019, this kind of happy home model of "holding a group for the elderly" was fully rolled out in Kushan Township.
According to Wang Defeng, at present, Kushan Township has established 25 happiness homes, 1 comprehensive elderly care service center, and 2 service stations. At the same time, it cooperates with professional housekeeping service companies, and each service station will uniformly distribute meals to all villages under its jurisdiction. A smart elderly care service system of "system + service + elderly + terminal".
The small happiness home in Kushan Township holds up the "big people's livelihood" is a microcosm of my country's vigorous promotion of "mutual support for the elderly" in recent years.
Data shows that there are currently more than 20,000 elderly care institutions in rural areas in my country, and 108,000 mutual aid facilities such as happiness homes and nursing homes. A multi-level rural elderly care service network has been initially formed.
The so-called "mutual support for the elderly" means that the young people take care of the older people, and the older people with better physical conditions take care of the older people with poor physical conditions, so as to complete the intergenerational transfer of elderly care services.
According to Wang Sangui, Dean of the China Institute of Poverty Alleviation, Renmin University of China, rural "mutually aided elderly care" can be achieved through several models such as voluntary services, the creation of specialized institutions, and long-term care insurance. These models are between home-based elderly care and third-party socialized services. between.
The reporter noticed that in rural areas, the "food and housing integrated" type, the "regardless of food and housing" type, the "public cultural and sports entertainment + door-to-door service" type... various types of "mutually assisted elderly care" models continue to be implemented, relying on the village-level elderly The association, relying on the prestigious elderly to lead the organization, solves the problem of "lack of people" by helping "old people" with "few old people".
In Yishui County, Shandong Province, the “Caring for the Elderly·Love and Warm Sunset” volunteer service is in full swing. The rural party branch leads the volunteer service team to mobilize party members under the age of 50 in the village who are at home all year round and have a certain ability to serve. , To take the lead in developing services, and the service targets are mainly decentralized support for extremely poor people, left-behind elderly and home-based elderly people.
The service content mainly includes cleaning, housework, washing clothes, and helping purchasing agents to effectively meet the needs of the masses.
In Miyun District, Beijing, the town’s elderly care service agencies and facilities are coordinated to form a neighborhood mutual aid agency in the town. The agency recruits neighborhood mutual aid workers based on the distribution of the elderly, and establishes a number of neighborhood mutual aid teams to form a “neighborhood mutual aid agency, neighborhood mutual aid organization”. The three-level organizational structure of “Teams and Neighbors Mutual Aid Workers” effectively solves the problem of home care for the elderly living alone in rural areas, especially in mountainous areas.
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Liu Nina, an associate professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at North China Electric Power University, and her team have been studying the "mutually assisted elderly care" model. She told reporters: "The advantages of'mutually assisted elderly care" in rural areas are first reflected in rural areas based on blood, geographic, and kinship. The neighborhood watch tradition in relationship."
Liu Nina believes that village committees, collective economic organizations, and farmer cooperatives under the leadership of the village party committee provide an organizational basis for the development of rural mutual assistance for the elderly; in addition, rural backbones such as young healthy (quasi) elderly and party members provide human resources support.
"The income of rural elderly is relatively low, their purchasing power and desire to purchase market services are relatively low, and their acceptance of'mutual assistance' services is relatively high. This is also one of its outstanding advantages." Wang Sangui said, "'mutual assistance' 'Sexual elderly care' is definitely the general trend of rural elderly care in the future."
Dilemma
Capital and management are constraints
However, in the face of the challenge of the aging of the rural population and the needs of economic and social development, the promotion of rural elderly care services is still facing a very severe situation.
"It's not easy to manage." Xie Zejiang's biggest feeling in the past 3 years of operation of the Xingfu Institute is that he is very pleased and a sense of accomplishment to see the old people enjoying their lives, but there are also some difficulties in reality, such as the old people. Each has its own small temper, and it will inevitably cause friction when gathered together, which is a challenge for management.
Funding is also a major constraint.
According to Wang Defeng, one of the difficulties that Kushan Township currently has in the process of promoting smart elderly care is insufficient funds.
In order to overcome this problem as much as possible, Kushan Township follows the principle of "a higher level pays a little bit, the village raises a little bit, the individual contributes a little bit, and the society donates a little bit". Except for the higher-level subsidy funds, the remaining funds will be paid in the form of a 50% subsidy from the township party committee and 50% self-raised by the village.
At the same time, the “first secretary” stationed in the village is actively used to obtain unit assistance funds and absorb social donations.
Lu Shiyu is a senior researcher at Tencent Research Institute. During her research, she found that rural left-behind elderly people are more likely to suffer from different degrees of "social disconnection" due to lack of daily communication with close family members.
One of the breakthroughs to solve this dilemma is to encourage and help it to "re-socialize", that is, to continuously adapt to all aspects of social life, including the update, improvement, enrichment, and enhancement of values, behavioral norms, and social knowledge and skills. The digital connection is the first step to help the rural left-behind elderly to "reconnect" and "re-socialize".
But she found that in rural areas, the Internet has not yet universal coverage, and there are few "digital connection points".
As for "mutual support for the elderly", although this model is currently blooming in rural areas, it also faces some obstacles.
Liu Nina cited, for example, that most people in rural areas have an unclear understanding of "mutually assisted elderly care"; funding is uneven and sourced from a single source; rural "mutually assisted elderly care" related organizational functions have yet to be fully utilized; service supply and demand are misaligned and the quality is not high ; The lack of effective management and operation of organizations and facilities are all obstacles to the continuous advancement of "mutual assistance for the elderly".
Suggest
Multi-pronged approach to improve the situation of the elderly
So, how should "mutual support for the elderly" be further implemented?
What are the "answers" to the rural pension problem?
Liu Nina gave her own suggestions: First, we must promote the rural mutual assistance culture, so that neighbors watch and mutual assistance and cooperation become the main culture in the rural areas; secondly, the government guides multi-channel funding to increase rural mutual assistance pension funding support, which can promote the purchase of long-term care insurance in pilot areas Rural mutual assistance care services, in addition to government funds, allow more enterprises, foundations and other social capital to participate in the financial support of the rural mutual assistance elderly care pilot.
"It is also necessary to establish organizational forms according to local conditions, and do a good job in the construction of rural mutual assistance pension organizations. For example, can the elderly association be established as the main status of rural mutual assistance pension organizations? The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will issue relevant policies to encourage farmers' cooperatives to expand from economic functions to life service functions. Give full play to the role of women’s organizations and other grassroots group organizations; the Ministry of Civil Affairs will take the lead in formulating guidelines for the development of rural mutual assistance and elderly care services, optimize village-level catering services, and focus on the construction of good conditions and strong radiant catering." Liu Nina Say.
Liu Shouying's suggestion is to take a multi-pronged approach: further improve the level of pension security, and establish a stable growth and dynamic adjustment mechanism for rural pensions.
At present, the pension insurance for the rural elderly in my country is still at the stage of "wide coverage and low level", which is far from the pension level of the urban elderly.
We can try to benchmark the growth and adjustment mechanism of urban residents’ pensions, focus on improving the pension level of rural elderly, increase the financing channels of "life-saving money", and supplemented by a precise pension service subsidy system.
Improve the level of health services and solve the problem of "seeing a doctor" for the elderly in rural areas.
Optimize the layout of medical and health service facilities, rectify and reform village clinics that have not been used for a long time, and scientifically formulate the training, promotion, and subsidy policies for grassroots health service personnel, so as to alleviate the current situation that primary medical and health institutions cannot operate normally due to lack of medical staff; Establish a first aid system for the elderly in rural areas, establish a system of collectively deploying emergency vehicles in mountainous villages, increase first aid stations, and provide first aid training for rural "4050" personnel (referring to women over 40 years old and men over 50 years of age) in the working age group. Increase the supply of personnel and increase the satisfaction rate of emergency calls; medical and health resources are further sinking, and the supply of medicines and infusion permissions of rural clinics are relaxed to meet the basic medical needs of rural elderly groups.
"For some chronic disease drugs, on the basis of ensuring medical safety, first-line drugs with clear diagnosis and treatment specifications and guidelines, and high safety, can try to write long-term prescriptions to prevent elderly patients from running away." Liu Shouying said.
From the perspective of digital technology assistance, Lu Shiyu suggested that more "digital connection points" should be reserved and created for the rural left-behind elderly. "These "digital connection points" are not limited to social networks, but can also be achieved through various interactive digital content products. Such as long and short videos and chess and card games that the elderly love to see, to build a supplementary social network for the elderly."
This idea was approved by Qin Hua.
He found that after his mother had a smartphone, her mood was brighter. She swiped short videos in her free time, and occasionally video chats with relatives and friends in other places.
He also has some ideas of his own: Can he explore the establishment of an escrow agency in rural areas to be responsible for fund operations, purchase of daily necessities and information services?
"Give parents money, they don’t want it, even if they accept it, they are reluctant to spend it. If there is such an escrow agency, the children pay a monthly sum of money to go in, and the staff will help buy vegetables, medicines or other daily necessities and send them to their homes. After the mechanism matures, it will realize comprehensive assistance from material to information, and build an information bridge for children and parents. For example, parents can inform their children in time when they are sick.” When it comes to helping parents who stay at home, Qin Hua is a little helpless and full of longing. .
(The left-behind elderly and their children in the text are pseudonyms)