CCTV News:At the second inter-ministerial joint meeting of left-behind children in rural areas held yesterday (9th), the Ministry of Civil Affairs released the data for the first time. At present, there are 9.02 million left-behind children under the age of 16 in rural areas in China, including 8.05 million who are supervised by grandparents and 360,000 who are left unattended.
Before this thorough investigation, the Ministry of Civil Affairs first defined the concept of left-behind children in rural areas according to the Opinions of the State Council on Strengthening the Care and Protection of Left-behind Children in Rural Areas, and determined that it refers to "rural registered minors under the age of 16 whose parents go out to work or one of them goes out to work and the other has no guardianship ability and cannot live with their parents normally".
Tong Lihua, Director of Beijing Youth Legal Aid Center:In the past, the statistics were under the age of 18, and this time the statistics were under the age of 16, with a difference of two years; It’s different when both parents go out and one parent goes out. Another factor is that in the past few years, some parents of left-behind children and parents who go out to work have brought their children to the city. These people are called floating children in cities and towns.
The data released this time can be said that the number of left-behind children in China has reached 61.02 million compared with many previous reports and media releases, which is a huge difference. Wang Jinhua, director of the Social Affairs Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, pointed out that 61.02 million people were based on the sample of the sixth population census in 2010, among which 1.26 million people were sampled and calculated by some institutions, and this data has been six years now.
Wang Jinhua, Director of the Social Affairs Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs: Compared with the past, this is a significant decline. Still, this one is a statistical caliber, which is not quite the same. On the other hand, it is also related to a series of measures adopted by our country, the party and the government, such as returning to their hometowns to start businesses, enrolling migrant workers’ children in school with their accommodation, urbanization, and tackling poverty.
The proportion of left-behind children in rural areas in central provinces is the highest.
Judging from the data of this survey, the total number of left-behind children in rural areas in eastern provinces is the least, only 870,000, while the number in central provinces reaches 4.63 million, accounting for 51.33% of the national total.
Most left-behind children in rural areas are 6-13 years old.
According to the data provided by this census, from the perspective of regional distribution, rural left-behind children are mainly concentrated in the central and western regions, of which Jiangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Henan, Hunan and other provinces have more than 700,000 people, accounting for 67.7% of the national total. In terms of age structure, there are 5.59 million rural left-behind children aged 6 to 13, accounting for 62% of the total number in China.
Wang Jinhua, Director of Social Affairs Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs:Judging from the current data, there are about 990,000 left-behind children in China, either without guardianship, lacking guardianship ability or poor guardianship ability. It is very likely that these left-behind children are in danger of survival or facing some life safety.
Carry out special actions to cover the safety bottom line
To this end, the Ministry of Civil Affairs appeals that these situations should attract the attention of governments at all levels and society. It is understood that the Office of the Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference of Left-behind Children will carry out a series of special actions in the next step to put an end to the phenomenon of no guardians, curb guardians’ infringement on the rights and interests of left-behind children in rural areas, and cover the bottom line of children’s life safety.
Tong Lihua, director of Beijing Youth Legal Aid Center: From the perspective of the central government, it is obviously necessary to pay more attention to left-behind children. How to train these children into future builders is a huge challenge facing the party, the government and society. I think these things are not only of great significance, but also the foundation for training builders for this country and consolidating the national manpower.
Implement dynamic management of left-behind children in rural areas
From the comprehensive investigation to the special action to be carried out, it can be said that the relevant departments are coordinating their actions, but the situation and information of children left behind are dynamic, so what measures will be taken to deal with this situation?
Dynamic management of multi-department collaborative monitoring
According to reports, on the basis of comprehensive arrangement, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, together with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Security, will urge and guide all localities to monitor and master the dynamic changes and information of left-behind children in rural areas in a timely manner through regular visits and key inspections.
Wang Jinhua, Director of Social Affairs Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs:Develop a system with all the data of left-behind children, and build a platform to build an effective platform for relevant departments and social caring people, including social organizations, to participate in the work of street children in the next step.
At present, the lack of family guardianship is prominent.
At the same time, Wang Jinhua also pointed out that the lack of family guardianship is a prominent problem at present. Individual parents who go out to work lack the sense of guardianship responsibility, leaving their minor children to live alone, and rarely visiting at home, or even not contacting their children all the year round, which seriously affects their children’s physical and mental health development.
Tong Lihua, Director of Beijing Youth Legal Aid and Research CenterParents have to take responsibility when they have children. This responsibility is not whether you want to do it or not. It is stipulated by law and must be done. If parents go out and leave their children unattended, it is illegal.
At the meeting, Huang Shuxian, Minister of Civil Affairs, pointed out that at present, some localities and departments still pay insufficient attention to the left-behind children in rural areas, the progress is not fast, and they are afraid of difficulties. There are still many left-behind children in rural areas who have difficulties and problems in guardianship, enrollment and mental health.
Minister of Civil Affairs Huang Shuxian:To do a good job in caring and protecting the left-behind children in rural areas, we have a heavy task and great responsibility to ensure that the care and protection work covers every left-behind child who needs care, and jointly create a new situation of caring for left-behind children.
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