China secures guardianship for 760,000 left-behind children

BEIJING -- From November 2016 to mid-November this year, 760,000 previously unsupervised "left-behind children" in China's rural areas were placed in the custody of guardians, the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) said on the International Children's Day which falls on Nov 20.

Left-behind children are those whose parents have become migrant workers in towns or cities, leaving their children either unsupervised or in the care of relatives or neighbors.

Since the campaign to help left-behind children began in November 2016, 16,000 left-behind children who had dropped out of school have resumed their education, and 177,800 who were previously unregistered have been registered on national household records, according to the ministry.

A total of 90,822 parents were cautioned for not fulfilling their duties, 282 parents were warned, detained or fined by police, 16 were given criminal penalties, and 17 were deprived their guardianship by courts, said the ministry.

A national information management system on left-behind children was launched in October. The system shares data with information systems of subsistence allowance, impoverished households and people with disabilities. It now has data on 1.3 million children with disabilities and 110,000 children of impoverished families.

China had 9.02 million left-behind children, according to a census by the ministries of civil affairs, education and public security from March 2016.