800,000 people benefit from China's legal aid supported by welfare lottery

BEIJING -- A legal aid program supported through the central government's public welfare lottery fund has helped more than 832,000 people in the past 10 years, data unveiled by the Ministry of Justice showed Thursday.

It brought vulnerable groups a total of 31.9 billion yuan ($4.7 billion), in terms of benefits or recovered losses, effectively safeguarding their lawful rights and interests, according to a ministry press conference marking the program's 10th anniversary.

More than 540,000 legal aid cases were resolved with funding support from the program, of which 91 percent were civil cases. Fifty-two percent of the allocated fund went to legal aid for migrant workers, while 24 percent to cases involving women's rights protection.

Beneficiaries of the legal aid program, according to officials, are mainly migrant workers, disabled people, elderly citizens, women and minors.