BEIJING, March 7 -- More than one-third of the one-child families in east China's Shanghai Fengxian District have decided to accept a government-paid insurance policy for their kids instead of an annual cash subsidy worth 60 yuan (7.50 U.S. dollars) a year.

    The insurance scheme was set up earlier this year.

    The policies, which only cost the government 60 yuan per child, pay up to 100,000 yuan in the event of an accident death, or up to 9,000 yuan for an injury.

    Officials from the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission said the city may promote the policies to millions of one-child families around the city if the Fengxian trial runs smoothly.

    In order to encourage families to follow the one-child policy, the city government began in the late 1970s to hand out 2.5 yuan a month to each set of parents with a child under the age of 16.

    "The money was an important source of financial support 30 years ago, but it doesn't mean a lot currently," said Shen Mingfei, director of the Fengxian District Population and Family Planning Commission. "We thought of introducing the insurance after learning about the pain of families whose children were killed or injured by serious accidents."

    Shen said some 110 one-child families in Fengxian lost their children due to accidents over the past 20 years.

    The district sent questionnaires to 14,000 one-child families late last year, of which 12,000 said they were interested in the insurance plan.

    "Over 10,000 of the 30,000 families living in Fengxian have bought the insurance so far."

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)