On Yang’s progress, her mother proudly admits to saying the same thing to the center’s staff and to friends and relatives: “”I’m just very grateful to the disabled people’s home.”

According to the latest statistics, there are 85 million persons with some form of disability in China, accounting for 6.34 percent of the country’s population. In 1988, the China Disabled Persons’ Federation was founded, followed by the successive establishments of local chapters in county-and-above administrative regions. These federations sought to better understand and meet disabled persons’ needs and more effectively safeguard their rights and interests. In 1990 the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Disabled Persons was promulgated, and it was revised in 2008 to further strengthen protection measures.

On July 20, 2012, the central government released the 12th Five-year Plan for the Basic Public Service System. It stressed that the state will provide disabled persons with basic public services according to their special needs; create a favorable social environment for them in which they can effectively participate in social affairs, and provide a stable system of guarantees that ensures each a livelihood and continued personal development.

An Improving Social Security System for Special Groups

Currently in China, the national social security system covers most disabled persons and provides them with various guarantees and support.

The national system of subsistence allowances provides the basic guarantee that disabled persons of low income are to enjoy an adequate standard of living. According to government statistics, of the 622,000 disabled persons living in Beijing in 2011, 40,400 collected a means-tested monthly subsistence allowance. Besides the allowance, some local disabled persons’ federations also grant subsidies to members on low incomes.

Xu Guanghua, a 44-year-old with cognitive impairment, also receives vocational rehabilitation training in the Heyi Disabled People’s Home. She has a 14-year-old daughter studying in middle school, and her husband’s poor health has prohibited him from seeking gainful employment for many years. Apart from a RMB 530 subsistence allowance from the municipal government, Xu also receives a monthly subsidy of RMB 100 from the Beijing Disabled Persons’ Federation.

Meanwhile, the rehabilitation center finds buyers for the handicrafts Xu and other attendees produce, allowing them to bolster their incomes. In July, Xu earned more than RMB 800 from making artificial flowers.

The Beijing Municipal Government also gives a monthly lunch subsidy of RMB 230 to disabled persons attending vocational rehabilitation centers. The government subsidies, plus the income from handicrafts, essentially cover Xu’s family’s living expenses.

Some households with unemployed, severely disabled members are not eligible for the subsistence allowance, since their collective income is marginally above the cut-off set by the state. But expensive caring needs can easily eat away their incomes and plunge whole families into financial stress. In recent years this has been changing – many regions in China such as Beijing and Qinghai now award subsidies to the families of severely disabled persons who can’t secure employment. It’s a step forward.

For disabled persons joining the social and medical insurance systems, the central government requires local governments to extend to them means-tested preferential treatment. Nowadays, many regions have implemented a policy whereby local governments pay for social and medical insurance for severely disabled persons. For example, in 2011 Ningdu County of Jiangxi Province introduced a new measure that allows severely disabled residents in the county’s rural and urban areas to join the state pension insurance scheme free of charge. The county government pays the basic insurance fee. Also in 2011, Changshan County of Zhejiang Province introduced a policy allowing the region’s 2,521 severely disabled residents to gain access to free medical insurance. The county government pays the premium.

Local governments have also introduced special relief policies for disable persons trapped in unexpected or temporary predicaments. Liu Jie works for a community center in Heyi Subdistrict. His wife, Tong Jialing, is mentally handicapped. In September 2011, when Tong was going through a particularly rough patch, she disappeared from her home. She was found by the police three days later, having fallen from a highway overpass. She was severely injured and lucky to have come away from the fall with her life. Costs of subsequent medical treatment were mostly covered by her medical insurance, but the expense of RMB 100 daily for nursing care was an unaffordable financial burden on the family.

“After learning of the family’s predicament, we immediately reported the case to government departments such as the Fengtai District Disabled Persons’ Federation and the local civil affair bureau. We applied to provide the family with a temporary relief fund. In the end, we obtained RMB 15,000, which helped Tong and her family pull through,” Xiao told China Today.

Rehabilitation, No Longer Just a Dream

On June 11, 2012, the State Council released the National Human Rights Action Plan (2012-2015). Over the next three years China will help over 13 million disabled persons to gain access to varying forms of rehabilitation by carrying out a series of national rehabilitation programs across the country.

Disabled persons’ homes are playing a fundamental role in communities by providing those in need with rehabilitation opportunities. In the Heyi Disabled Persons’ Home, there is a vocational training center, a library, a legal consultation room, a legal and psychological consultation service, a rehabilitation room and a cultural activity program. “The facility is tailor-made for people with disabilities,” Xiao said.

Those most reliant on such facilities are the mentally handicapped. Most come everyday for vocational rehabilitation training.

“Due to their mental retardation, learning to complete a simple task can take a long time. But I’ve seen dramatic changes in their abilities over the last few years the center has been running. I often say it’s a miracle,” faculty member Wan Shuying confided.

The “miracle” Wan mentions is that the mentally handicapped persons in the center have learned to communicate and cooperate with other people, express themselves effectively and make a variety of handicrafts to supplement their incomes. The change from when they first came to the center could not be greater. Some have even learned to read music and are able to play many songs on the flute. Rehabilitation is working.