More than 20 million children live with their grandparents or
other relatives because their parents have migrated to other
provinces in search of work, with many among them being forced to
live alone.
According to a recent China National Children and Teenagers'
Working Committee report, in agricultural provinces like east
China's Anhui Province, as much as 22 percent of the
children's parents have migrated and the number is increasing.
The number of migrant workers was more than 140 million in 2005,
according to Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' figures.
And many of these parents' children suffer from loneliness,
perform poorly at school and are prone to juvenile delinquency, it
said.
The local media often reports their tragedy. One such case was
the death of a 12-year-old in Suzhou of Anhui. The boy killed
himself by drinking pesticides last year because he had no one to
advise him how to solve his problems, according to his suicide
note.
Though the working committee has vowed to organize the children
into clubs and find them "acting parents to tackle the problem,"
their huge number means it could take years before such an
arrangement is possible throughout the country.
A survey in Chaohu, in Anhui last year showed that migrating
parents had left behind 116,000 children. About 952,000 people,
including 55,000 couples from the paddy cultivation area, have
migrated from Chaohu, according to Yu Zupeng, an official of the
provincial committee of the Chinese Peasants' and Workers'
Democratic Party, which carried out the survey.
About 1 percent, that is, more than 1,000, of these children
have no guardians. Such children have little communication with
their parents: most Chaohu migrants talk to their children over the
phone just once or twice a month, and return home only during
Spring Festival. Some don't even do that, the survey said.
Deprived of parental love, many such children prefer staying
alone and often become rebellious. For instance, a girl in Chaohu
set her grandparents' house on fire last year because she felt they
couldn't understand her feelings.
They often feel frustrated at school, too. A recent survey on
the 72 junior high schools in Wuwei County of Chaohu has showed
that 80 percent of those who flunked the senior high school
entrance exam in 2005 were such children, Yu said.
Another survey, conducted in Tangchi Town Junior High School of
Lujiang County in Chaohu, showed that less than 1 percent of such
children passed the senior high school entrance exam.
Also, only 4 percent always did well at school, whereas 64
percent remained at a mediocre level and 32 percent often failed in
exams.
If the government wants to help these children, it should first
make it easier for them to study in the cities where their parents
work, Yu said.
(China Daily January 29, 2007)