The government has a responsibility to help impoverished families, says an article in Yanzhao Metropolis Daily. An excerpt follows:

A few days ago, the Beijing News carried two articles on the story of the one-year-old quadruplets being brought to Beijing from their hometown in Shangshui County of Henan Province by their mother and grandmother and begging on the streets of the capital for "milk powder money." It is reported that a lot of kind-hearted people have offered a helping hand to the poor family.

Similar cases are common throughout the country's vast rural areas. Due to an insufficient social insurance system in rural areas, many families fall into heavy debt and struggle for existence for various reasons.

With the help of some kind-hearted people, they may survive for a while. But people cannot help asking: Why has our country not set up a public relief system to ensure the subsistence rights of those in poverty?

In today's society in which not all are able to solve their own food and clothing problems, a system should be set up to help needy people so they can really enjoy the subsistence right.

As the country has generally stepped into a stage of growing prosperity and social civilization has reached a relatively high degree, it has become a legal obligation for the government to effectively alleviate citizens' crises.

(China Daily October 11, 2005)