Poverty relief programs cover 2 mln disabled people

About 2.12 million impoverished handicapped people took advantage of various poverty relief programs last year, according to the China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF).

Among them, some 87,000 were employed through nearly 4,000 poverty support centers across the country, and ensuing ripple effect benefited another 156,000 persons, according to a statement on China's development of services for disabled people released by the CDPF.

Also, 71,000 disabled people in rural areas were supported by a favorable loan policy that promised reduced interests, while a pairing project enabled 328,000 individuals and 52,000 units to provide long-term financial support to impoverished handicapped persons, said the document.

In a house reconstruction program, various local governments poured in 950 million yuan (151 million U.S. dollars) and renovated 94,000 damaged houses for rural families with disabled members.

Latest figures from the CDPF show that 13 million impoverished disabled people in the country's rural areas achieved basic living standard from 2001 to 2010.

"Public services and policy support for our country's impoverished disabled people are still not enough... In the coming ten years, we will aim at elevating their living standards as well as their social status, helping them develop and achieve their values," Wang Jianjun, director of the poverty relief office under the federation, said last month.

The overall population of impoverished disabled people in China's rural areas is estimated at about 25 million.