Rural workshops provide jobs for the poor

Given the growing number of rural residents seeking jobs in cities, how to help those left behind to increase their incomes is a common challenge facing local governments.

Jiangxi province is exploring an innovative path to address the issue, creating "workshops focused on poverty alleviation" in rural areas.

As Jiangxi is a major source of migrant workers, the majority of the province's young rural labor force has left in search of employment opportunities in cities over the years. Those left at home have been children, the elderly, the sick, the disabled or the poorly educated.

These vulnerable groups have difficulty earning a living, and in the past would have relied on relief. But to help them to fend for themselves, the provincial government has been encouraging local entrepreneurs to run labor-intensive workshops in villages to provide them with jobs.

The work in these poverty alleviation workshops is unskilled and the work hours are flexible.

Hu Yueming, deputy director of the Jiangxi Poverty Alleviation and Resettlement Office, cited Longnan county as an example of a place where the government has invested in an industrial park to attract companies to set up such poverty alleviation workshops.

In Shicheng county, shoes and garment companies have set up 42 plants in rural areas. In Nankang district of Ganzhou, a city in the south of the province, home furniture companies have established 100 plants employing more than 2,000 poor people, Hu said.

The workshops also cover other poverty alleviation businesses in Jiangxi, including oranges from the south of the province, pomelo from Ji'an, salted ducks from Suichuan county, tea from Shangrao, white lotus seeds from Guangchang county and pear from Jiujiang.

Villagers from poor families can join in picking up, categorizing and packaging activities within their villages, Hu said.

Traditional handicrafts and tourist souvenirs are also among the best-selling products produced by poverty alleviation workshops.

In Jinggangshan, poor villagers make Red Army shoes at home and are paid per piece by local tourism companies, Hu said.

To date, nearly 3,000 such rural workshops have been established across the province, providing work for 52,000 poor villagers.

Each establishment is required to provide jobs for at least five poor people, paying them no less than the local minimum standard.

The government will subsidize the workshop providers with 1,000 yuan ($150) a year for each poor person employed and offer each of the employees from poor families a monthly subsidy of 120 yuan to 150 yuan, as well as free training.

"The workshops provide employment for poor local residents and increase their incomes, and also help to meet companies' demand for labor while reducing their costs," Hu said. "Thus it is an approach to poverty relief that provides a sustained, win-win solution."

(China Daily 11/06/2017 page12)