"Dear mummy and daddy, do you know how much your daughter misses
you?"
With tears in her eyes and her fingers shaking, a nine-year-old
girl's voice trembled as she read a letter she had written to her
parents out loud for her classmates. Like millions of rural folk,
the girl's parents left their rural home to work in the city.
Migrant workers as they're called, predominantly from poor rural
areas of China, form the backbone of the labor force that drives
China's rapidly developing economy. Hordes of surplus labor from
the countryside make their way every day into the cities in search
of work and a better life for their families back home.?
However, child welfare experts point out that while their
parents might be making huge contributions to the economy and
ensuring some material comfort for their families they leave behind
in the villages, that development has come at a huge price; their
children, known as "liu shou er tong" in Chinese, or literally
"left behind children".
According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics,
there are about 10 million "left behind children" under the age of
15.
On May 27, Gu Xiulian, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee
of China's National People's Congress and president of the
All-China Women's Federation, accompanied by leaders from 17
related ministries and departments, toured a special school for
migrant workers in Beijing's Daxing District.
The school, and others like it in various parts of China, was
set up with the aim of teaching migrant workers with children the
basics of parenting.
Gu stressed that it is important and significant to resolve the
problems of "left behind children" and urged society to work
together to develop a new system of supervision to safeguard their
rights and the rights of children in general.?
Reportedly, some 1,000 special schools are to be built around
China this year.
Problems the children face
In August 2005, the Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth
League (CYL) in Hunan, conducted a survey to identify the
problems that plague "left behind children". The survey covered 16
towns and counties in eight cities.
Distributing questionnaires to guardians, teachers and "left
behind children", the survey posed questions relating to a variety
of topics including mental health, behavioral development, family
environment, education, and peer relationships.
According to the survey results, many children feel that "study
is useless". Only 33.6 percent said that their dream was to study.
Some 57.1 percent of them want to follow in their parents'
footsteps and become migrant workers in the cities or start small
businesses after they graduate from middle school.
A third of the children were found to be lacking in
self-confidence. Only 35.1 percent showed any signs of a
willingness to study and succeed in their studies. Moreover, the
majority of teachers and guardians were not satisfied with the
children's performance at school.
A high proportion of the children, about 63.9 percent,
complained that there was no one to guide or teach them. Survey
researchers also found that teachers often do not pay these
children enough attention and many guardians lack the education
level and ability to teach the children at home.
Experts also point out that most of these "left behind children"
live in remote rural areas where elementary education facilities,
in terms of schools and teachers, are lacking.
The Hunan CYL conducted another investigation into the mental
health of "left behind children". They studied a total of 285 boys
and 381 girls.
Results show that 57 percent of the children have psychological
problems, 9.3 percent of which are considered serious.?
Some of the problems include depression and short attention
spans. Unable to cope with their situations and yearning
desperately for parental attention, many children run away from
home either ostensibly to look for their parents or to find work in
the cities as well.
Given the generally dire living conditions in China's rural
areas, a situation that forces rural folk to find work in faraway
cities, experts acknowledge that it is difficult for migrant
workers with children to balance their parental obligations between
providing materially as well as emotionally.
(China.org.cn by Wang Ke May 31, 2006)
