12-year-old Xiao Ming lifted his dirty quilt to uncover a
half-filled bag of flour. "Look, I still have food," he said with a
smile to a reporter from China Youth Daily. According to
the paper's report on April 17, Xiao Ming has lived mostly alone
since his parents died three years ago. His two elder brothers have
left home to work. Relatives who live about 100 kilometers away
visit once in a while. They brought some pies for him on their last
visit, but the pies have since gone moldy. The boy gets most of his
meals from neighbors.
Another 12-year-old, Xiao Rong, from Luocheng County of Guangxi lost her father to tuberculosis when
she was a year and a half. A year later, her mother left home with
her stepfather and never returned. Xiao Rong then lived with her
grandfather and great-grandmother. In 2002, her grandfather passed
away, leaving Xiao Rong to care not only for herself, but also for
her 94-year old great-grandmother.
Stories like Xiao Ming and Xiao Rong's are more common than one
might think.
According to a survey on the conditions of orphans in China
jointly conducted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Social
Development and Public Policies Research Center of Beijing Normal
University last September, there are 573,000 minors under 18 who
fend for themselves. Among them, over 30 percent do not get regular
aid from the government. Further, even if they did receive aid,
orphans in the rural areas receive much less than orphans in the
cities.
On March 29, 15 government departments, including the Ministry
of Civil Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission
and the Ministry of Finance, jointly issued a document entitled,
"Opinions on Enhancing China's Welfare Service for Orphans", urging
governments at various levels to incorporate aid for orphans into
their respective five-year development plans.
"The document is a step forward. However, the key is whether it
can be fully and properly implemented," said Professor Shang
Xiaoyuan from Beijing Normal University. Prof Shang compiled the
survey on China's orphans.
Existing aid policies that cover orphans include the social
security system that guarantees a minimum standard of living in
urban and rural areas. In the rural areas, orphans are given basic
aid for food, clothing, shelter, medical and funeral expenses (the
five guarantees). There is also an aid scheme for extremely
impoverished rural households.
But aid is minimal. 54,000 orphans in cities are covered by the
minimum standard of living policy. This represents 99 percent of
orphans in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and 40
percent in Shaanxi Province and Chongqing Municipality.
In the rural areas, 125,000 orphans are given the five
guarantees. Orphans in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guizhou and Hunan provinces each get less than 600 yuan
(US$75) annually. In Qinghai, the province with the lowest aid
standard, each orphan can gets only 110 yuan (US$14) a year.
According to the survey, most orphans, some 450,000, are in the
care of relatives. Only about 69,000 orphans are cared for by
government-run welfare organizations.
Prof Shang said in rural areas where relationships between
relatives are closer, orphans are usually cared for by their
grandparents. He added, however, that some orphans are abused by
their relatives. In addition, in families where there are few
living relatives, no one takes charge of caring for orphaned
children and many live alone.
In cases where the primary breadwinner of a family passes away,
caregivers are not able to pay for orphaned children's educational
and medical expenses. This forces many children to drop out of
school to wander the streets or go out in search of work.
(China.org.cn by Wang Qian April 21, 2006)