CHINA / Figure that Matters
China's 'leftover children'
(Chinanews.cn)
Updated: 2006-07-06 11:25
"How about your study now?" "Fine." "Is your Mom OK?" "Yes." "How is
everybody in the family?" "They are fine." "Ok, then I'll hang up."
The phone call was made by a migrant worker from his hometown of Yanqing
on the far outskirts of Beijing, and called back to his child recently.
The total call lasted only 30 seconds. However, even this short
conservation was a luxury to the family.
In China, with one or both parents going out to earn money, many children
are left in their hometowns in the countryside. These children are called
"leftover children". Some people say that the leftover children
phenomenon is largely caused by poverty. Since 1978 when China began to
introduce the reform and opening-up, more and more farmers flocked to big
cities and as a result, a large number of leftover children have emerge.d
Statistics showed that in 2004, China had a total of 22 million leftover
children in the countryside.
Usually, the children's grandparents or their parent's friends or
relatives look after these children. Sometimes these children are brought
up by one of their parents at home. In most cases, their guardians are
not quite educated. To them, making sure that the children are healthy
and fed well is the most important task. If the children are safe and
sound, they are considered to have done a good job. Guardians seldom care
about children's study, their psychological needs, or mental demands.
Neither do they spend some time to teach kids how to develop good habits.
Deputy director of the China Youth Research Center Sun Xiaoyun said that
children need emotional support. The younger they are, the more emotional
support they need. Most of the emotional support comes from their
parents. For most of the time, problems of the leftover children largely
arise from a lack of emotional care from their parents. If kids can go
out with their parents together, many problems will disappear.
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