680,000 Left-Behind Children in China Now in Custody of Guardians

Some 680,000 Chinese children who had been left behind by their migrant worker parents working in the cities have been placed in the effective custody of guardians as of the end of August, according to an office under the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Most of the children are being taken care of by designated guardians or one of their parents who have been told to return to their children. China launched a campaign to improve care for children left-behind in rural areas in November 2016.

A total of 11,821 children left-behind by parents who had dropped out of school have now resumed their education, according to a recent conference held by an office under an inter-ministerial conference to protect such children.

Police at all levels have helped a total of 125,377 children left-behind to obtain household registration, or hukou. They have also warned 90,822 parents for not fulfilling their parental responsibilities, and fined or detained 282 parents. Seventeen parents have been deprived of their guardianship by the courts.

The office has requested police and government at all levels to make further efforts for these children by taking more targeted measures to make sure none of them are left without guardians.

The office also pledged to specially guide and examine guardianship implementation, household registration, and dropout rate control.

This article was originally published in Huanqiu.