Leftbehind children in China

Cesar Chelala| Published: 00:00, Sep 08,2018 | Updated: 01:01, Sep 08,2018

 

 

This aerial photo shows childrenlining up for a flag-raising ceremony on their first day back to school afterthe summer holidays, at the playground of a middle school in Shanghai onSeptember 3. — Agence France-Presse/Johannes Eisele

CHINA’S rapid economic developmenthas caused a wide gap between rich and poor that has forced millions of workersto emigrate from rural areas to the country’s main cities. Since 1978, Chinahas experienced the largest internal migration in history. The phenomenon ofleft-behind children is not unique to China, since other countries in Asia havea similar phenomenon. However, in no country are the numbers as high as inChina. It is estimated that there are in China more than 61 million left-behindchildren, about one-fifth of the children in China, 40 per cent of whom areunder age five.
As a result of this migration pattern, the children left behind remain underthe care of relatives, mostly grandparents, family friends and, in some casesthey have to fend for themselves. Because often the caretakers do not have thephysical strength or knowledge to take adequate care of these children, theysuffer developmental, behavioral and other kind of problems that need to beproperly addressed.
Traditionally, migrant workers from the countryside travel to cities on theEast coast of China and visit their families once a year during the springfestival. However, many children do not get to see their parents annually. Thissituation exacerbates the problems children have in schools, in theirrelationships and even later in life. It is estimated that approximately almosta third of the nation’s children growing up in rural areas are growing upwithout one or both parents and more than half of those are left by bothparents.
To mitigate the problem, the government has created schools for migrantchildren and launched a program that gave children left behind the opportunityto travel to the cities and spend their summer holidays with their parents.However, migrant schools have lower standards than regular schools, and as aconsequence the education they provide does not have the same quality asregular schools.
Although the migrant’s cheap labour has fuelled China’s spectacular economicgrowth, this has come with a high cost to the children, and to the parentsthemselves who, to save as much money as possible, tend to live in squalidquarters with many people sharing one room without any comforts.
In recent years, the difficult situation of left-behind children is attractingincreasing attention. Many childhood experts warn of the psychological andemotional problems of children raised without their parents. One of theconsequences is that they don’t do well at school and frequently havebehavioural problems that may lead in some cases to commit suicide.
It is estimated that as many as 57 per cent of left-behind children suffer froma variety of psychological problems, and they account for 70 per cent ofjuvenile delinquency cases. In addition, children coming from rural areas arebarred from public schools in the cities and are also devoid of medical care,unless their parents have residency permits.
China’s hukou, or household registration system, prevents rural children fromattending most legal, urban schools. Although Chinese children are entitled tonine years of free public education, they must pay steep fines if they enrol inschools outside the town or village where they are registered. In addition,those living in the cities discriminate against people coming from rural areas,whom they consider uneducated and of vulgar manners.
Stories reported in the media have shown that left-behind children are morefrequently subject to bullying and sexual and physical abuse. At home, theytend to suffer more frequently of burns and other accidents. Although theirgrandparents offer their children all their loving support, in many cases thereis a wide cultural gap that hinders their understanding of the children’s needsand concerns.
Although some non-governmental organizations have been trying to helpleft-behind children overcome their emotional problems by giving them support,the number of such NGOs is too small to mitigate such a large scale problem.What is needed is a comprehensive government plan to deal with this problem.Three ministries: civil affairs, education and public security will carry out ajoint survey on the situation of left-behind children in rural areas, whichwill allow to draw a plan for improving their situation.
Such a plan should include reforming the hukou household registration system tomake education and social services more easily available to migrant ruralchildren who want to join their parents. In addition, grandparents couldreceive classes at the local schools on how best to identify and address theirgrandchildren’s problems.
The government has started to train, with some promising results, ‘barefootsocial workers’ who can deal with the most common social and emotional problemsof left-behind children. Improving these children’s quality of life is anecessary step for the development of a healthy Chinese society.

CounterPunch.org,September 7. Dr Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of the 1979 Overseas Press Club ofAmerica award for the article ‘Missing or Disappeared in Argentina: TheDesperate Search for Thousands of Abducted Victims.’