01252pab a2200145 454500008004000000100001700040245006300057260000900120300001500129362001000144520088600154650002001040650001201060773003401072180718b1999   xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aSelden, Mark  aPoverty alleviation, inequality and welfare in rural China  c1999  ap.3183-190  a6 Nov  aChina has made significant gains in reducing rural poverty as a result of extensive and rapid growth supplemented by the poverty alleviation programmes in major rural backwaters. Yet, recent decades have also brought dismantling of community-based health and welfare programmes, with no discernable progress in extension of universal social security to the countryside. Rapid increases in absolute and relative population above age of 60, rising dependency ratios in which a shrinking labouring class must support the aged and infirm, and galloping inequality that threatens to make China's income distribution the most unequal in the world, all highlight the importance of effective and reliable welfare and pension programmes. The paper concludes that social welfare, poverty and inequality, slighted in China's race to growth, will confront it in the years to come. - Reproduced  aPoverty - China  aPoverty  aEconomic and Political Weekly