China
has the highest female suicide rate in the world. According to a State
Department Report, 590 women end their lives every day in China. China
also has a skyrocketing rate of senior suicide, which has increased
500% in the past 20 years, as the One Child Policy has destroyed the
family structure in China.
China’s current elderly population is 241 million, 17.3 % of the
nation’s total population, and rising. China’s elderly population is
set to peak at nearly half a billion, or 35% of the total population, in
2050.
Sadly, senior suicide is on the rise. According to a reportin the China
Daily -- a Chinese government–affiliated English language news outlet
-- the suicide rate of rural Chinese elderly has increased 500% in the
past two decades, from 100 to 500 per 100,000. According to sociologist
Liu Yanwu, who studied the issue for six years, “. . . I was more
shocked by the lack of concern in villages where the elderly commit
suicide . . . It seems that death is nothing to fear, and suicide is a
normal, even a happy end.”
In the past, elders were venerated and cared for by their children and
grandchildren. “Filial piety was valued in old China, but many elderly
people in rural areas can no longer depend on their children as a result
of the great economic and social changes over the past three decades,”
continues Liu, “and the pension system fails to compensate . . . In
China, farmers are vulnerable, and old farmers are the most vulnerable.”
Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of Women’s Rights Without
Frontiers, stated, “the studies show that the elderly, especially
elderly widows who traditionally have depended on their children to
support them in old age, are becoming destitute and so desperate that
they are committing suicide. They are the invisible victims of the
demographic disaster caused by the One Child Policy and are in urgent
need of help.
Women’s Rights Without Frontiersis committed to helping Chinese women at
every stage of their lives. Our “Save a Girl” Campaignhelps baby girls
to be born, instead of being selectively aborted or abandoned because
they are girls. Likewise, we help their mothers defend themselves
against the pressure to abort or abandon their baby girls. And now
through our “Save a Widow” Campaign, we are extending help to elderly
widows, to ease their suffering and give them dignity and new hope in
the twilight season of their lives.
These efforts are not enough to help all the baby girls or all the
abandoned widows in China. We call upon the Chinese government to step
up its efforts to help those most vulnerable.
