杂志汇中国与非洲

By Xia Yuanyuan

When Zhang Meng arrived in Daxiongma Village early this year, the small village in southwest China’s Yunnan Province looked deserted. Most of its able-bodied adults had flocked to the cities for better opportunities and only the very young and the old were left behind. The fields lay barren with no one to farm them and sadder still, the children in the village lived like virtual orphans.

They were the “left-behind” children of China. Their parents had gone to work in the cities, putting them in the care of aged grandparents or other relatives who had little resources to bring up young people. As a result, the children lacked education, social skills and security, often suffering from developmental problems.

But Zhang, a student of Tianjin Normal University who is volunteering to teach at the village primary school, is destined to see changes. On February 15, the State Council, China’s cabinet, released a set of guidelines to address the plight of these children. The directive assigns responsibilities both to parents and local governments to ensure that the children are cared for and receive an education.  

The background

The media in China has played a major role in raising public awareness of the plight of these children. In January, it carried a heart-rending account of how a seven-year-old boy in southwest China’s Sichuan Province was seen running after a car, tears streaming down his face. His mother was in the car and earlier he was trying in vain to hold on to her hands, screaming: “You can’t treat me like this!” But his mother had to leave to work in another city and the car drove off, leaving the desolate boy behind.

Images of the weeping boy galvanized people into action, all the more so because it revived the memory of a tragedy last year. In June, four left-behind siblings in Guizhou Province in southwest China drank pesticide in an apparent suicide pact, unable to cope with the trauma of living on their own. The deaths made Premier Li Keqiang order an investigation and urge for better government supervision.  

There have also been cases of left-behind children falling prey to human trafficking or taking to crime.

Preventing tragedy

Relevant organizations have been working to gauge the magnitude of the problem and find solutions. The All-China Women’s Federation issued a report last year which said by June 2015, there were over 61 million leftbehind children in the rural areas. They accounted for 37.7 percent of China’s rural child population and 21.9 percent of the entire child population in the country.

According to the 2015 White Paper on Left-behind Children, the children faced severe psychological and emotional trauma, which was detrimental to their development.

The white paper was the result of a study co-produced by a non-profit organization called On the Way to School and a group of psychologists from Beijing Normal University.

“The key solution to the problem is making it possible for the children to live together with their parents,” said Zhang Xudong, an associate researcher at the China Youth and Children Research Center, an NGO collaborating in research to promote children’s rights and improve their well-being.

The guidelines released by the State Council say parents have the primary responsibility in looking after minor children. Children under the age of 16 should not be left on their own. If a migrant couple can’t take their children with them, one parent should stay behind to look after the latter. If both have to go, they must appoint a responsible guardian for the children. But even then, they must keep in regular touch with the children and visit them frequently to see if the youngsters are studying well and are mentally well.

“This is a social problem,” said Tang Qiyun, Director General of China Travel Volunteer-Education Support Group, an organization that recruits volunteers to teach left-behind children in rural areas. “Students who are left-behind children are usually depressed, emotionally unresponsive and detached. They also have poor communication competence. These children need society’s care and attention. We have to find a solution.”

Education is an important tool to help the children cope. But left-behind children in villages are usually looked after by people who have little or no education themselves and can’t provide adequate guidance to them. Therefore, these youngsters are likely to become school dropouts. Consequently, left-behind children become “lagging-behind” children.

Recognizing this, the guidelines urge local education departments to take effective measures to ensure leftbehind children don’t drop out of school due to poverty. Schools have been asked to ensure a good educational environment and strengthen mental health education to prevent psychological problems and bad behavior in youngsters.

“It will be helpful if there are psychological counselors for left-behind children. They need more professional guidance,” Zhang Meng, a volunteer teacher, said.

Education as savior

While stressing parents’ primary responsibility, the guidelines have directed local governments and village committees to stay well-informed about the left-behind children in their jurisdiction. Local governments can contact charities and voluntary associations to provide more professional services for the children.

China Travel Volunteer-Education Support Group sent Zhang Meng to Daxiongma to lend a hand at the village primary school. “In the school, 70 to 80 percent of the pupils are left-behind children. There are more than 100 students but only four teachers,” Zhang told ChinAfrica.

He found the same sad story unfolding in house after house. For the left-behind children, parents meant two strangers who visited them once a year during the Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year. Once the celebration was over, it was time for them to leave and the children faced virtual abandonment once again. When the youngsters were considered old enough for education, they were bundled off to the little primary school.

However, Zhang found left-behind children have little interest in their studies. “They do not realize the importance of education as no one ever tells them they can change their lives with knowledge,” he rued.

In addition to stepping up supervision and ensuring education for children, the government should also address social inequalities that are the root cause of the separation of children from parents, according to Tang.

“To enable parents to live with their children, the government should focus more on preventing the urbanrural [income] gap from widening,” Tang said. “Then they can work not too far away from home.”

For that to happen, Tang suggests strengthening the agriculture sector and rural infrastructure, which would promote the development of rural regions. The government should also explore other avenues to increase farmers’ incomes so that they don’t have to leave home. CA