Lack of parental care is the root problem for left-behind children

ON MONDAY, the first working day after Spring Festival, the State Council, China's Cabinet, published a guideline requiring all levels of local governments and families to better take care of left-behind children, those left in their rural hometowns by their parents when they work in cities far away. Better care means family reunions, not money, says The Beijing Times:

Left-behind children are known as "orphans whose parents are alive". Data show that by June 2015, there were 61 million of them; further, at least 2.05 million live alone without proper care. In recent years, there has been one tragedy after another involving left-behind children, which have focused ever more attention on their plight.

Thanks to the efforts of media and social organizations, many local governments have been providing basic social welfare to these left-behind children to support them.