Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Xizang's civil affairs authorities have consistently prioritized improving livelihoods and fostering social cohesion, achieving remarkable progress in serving the region's overall development. Currently, Xizang's social assistance system and social services continue to be refined, elderly care services and aging-related initiatives are making steady progress, while welfare programs for women and children are being expanded to reach more beneficiaries.

CPC Leadership: The Foundation of Progress

"Civil affairs work constitutes the fundamental bedrock of social development, with direct bearing on people's livelihoods and popular sentiment," stated Liu Zhongqiang, director of Xizang's Civil Affairs Department. "In executing duties, we have steadfastly upheld Party leadership across all aspects of work, maintaining a clear focus on fundamental mission of providing essential social safeguards. Through people-oriented policies and compassionate service delivery, numerous initiativeshave been implemented to improve welfare and security, thereby tangibly enhancing residents' sense of fulfillment, happiness and safety."

The report notes that under this people-centered approach, Xizang has achieved 98% coverage of basic living allowances and established over 200 elderly care centers regionwide in the past five years, demonstrating the concrete outcomes of the civil affairs system's work.

Breaking New Ground: Steady Advancement in the Livelihood Security System

Over the past five years, the civil affairs system in Xizang has consistently prioritized ensuring the basic living needs of disadvantaged groups as the government's fundamental responsibility in safeguarding people's livelihoods. Efforts have been made to translate favorable policies into tangible outcomes and deliver practical benefits that resonate with the public, enabling the masses to enjoy a higher quality of life.

Aging Initiatives and Elderly Care Services: Guided by theImplementation Opinions of Xizang Autonomous Region on Strengthening Aging Work in the New Era, various departments at all levels have introduced over 30 policy and guidance documents. These include measures to promote high-quality development of elderly care services, implementation plans for the national long-term strategy to actively address population aging, plans for establishing a basic elderly care service system, programs for visiting and caring for special-needs elderly, and initiatives for home- and community-based elderly care services. These efforts have preliminarily established a policy framework for aging work that aligns with the region's demographic trends, providing robust support for the development of elderly care services.

Social Assistance: With strengthened top-level design, a series of regulations have been issued, which will helpestablish a comprehensive, tiered, and efficient social assistance system.

Child Welfare Initiatives: Focusing on addressing children's needs with precision, through the implementation offive key initiatives—enhancing spiritual well-being, improving guardianship, targeted assistance, safety protection, and capacity building—Xizanghas strengthened ideological and moral education, mental health support, and cultural enrichment for vulnerable and left-behind children, aiming to establish a holistic care service system that extends from material aid to spiritual nourishment.

Targeted Efforts: Securing the Bottom Line of Livelihood Services

Over the past five years, Xizang's civil affairs system has focused on key areas and weak links such as aging initiatives, elderly care services, and child welfare, driving new progress and achievements in the development of civil affairs.

Support for Persons with Disabilities: Persons with disabilities are a particularly vulnerable group deserving special care and attention. In the past five years, Xizang has worked to improve the social service and support system for persons with disabilities, accurately identifying subsidy recipients, dynamically adjusting subsidy standards, and enhancing administrative convenience for persons with disabilities. The subsidy standards for persons with disabilities in Xizang have been raised twice, with the living subsidy for financially disadvantaged persons with disabilities increased to 144 yuan per person per month and the nursing subsidy for severely disabled persons raised to 288 yuan per person per month. As of December 2024, three mental health welfare institutions have been established and put into operation across the region, cumulatively serving 771 individuals with mental disorders.

Elderly Care Services: Simultaneously, Xizang has accelerated the construction of an elderly care service system that integrates home-community-institutionbased care, combining medical and wellness support. Efforts have been intensified to provide a safety net for elderly individuals who are extremely impoverished, low-income, advanced in age, or disabled. 80 centralized care service centers for extremely impoverished individuals have been established, serving 5,836 elderly persons in need, steadily enhancing the capacity for elderly care support.

An investment of 810 million yuan has been allocated to build 65 daytime care centers for the elderly and 156 rural happiness homes, cumulatively providing health guidance, daily care, emotional comfort, cultural and recreational activities, and wellness rehabilitation services to over 900,000 elderly individuals. Additionally, 133 elderly meal assistance service sites have been established to meet the demand for convenient and nearby dining services.

A further 495 million yuan has been invested in 57 renovation and upgrading projects for centralized care service centers for extremely impoverished individuals, improving elderly care facilities and continuously enhancing the capacity of safety-net elderly care institutions.

Child Welfare: Children are the future of the nation and the hope of people. For three consecutive years, Xizang has raised the basic living allowance standards for orphans, increasing them to 1,468 yuan, 1,762 yuan, and 1,982 yuan per person per month in Category II, III, and IV areas, respectively—a 38.6% increase.

Since 2021, a total of 258.2674 million yuan in basic living allowances for orphans and 48.6123 million yuan for de facto parentless children has been disbursed, benefiting 25,693 individuals. Additionally, 72.87 million yuan in educational assistance has been provided to 7,287 orphans, enabling 1,673 orphans to graduate and secure employment with the support of these policies.

A new model of child welfare work, characterized by"professional leadership + social participation," has been established. Across the region's 74 counties (districts), 854 qualified child welfare supervisors and 6,568 child directors have been appointed, achieving full coverage at the village (community) level.

In-depth efforts have been made to provide emergency assistance, support, and emotional care for rural left-behind children and vulnerable children, including mental health support, legal aid services, and educational training activities, cumulatively serving over 50,000 individuals.

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Each livelihood policy reflects the "warmth of care" for disadvantaged groups;Each livelihood project elevates the "happiness index" of vulnerable populations;Each steadfast step strives to write a "people-centered answer sheet" for the times.This is both the original mission of Xizang's civil affairs workers and a solemn commitment to future endeavors.

Reporter: Wen Feng

Translator: Liu Fang, Zhi Xinghua

Review: Hu Rongguo, Dong Xiuli