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

Qin Xiaohui (R) plays with the other children in his village on July 5, 2012. Qin Xiaohui, then 6, lives in Banlie Village of Bansheng Township in Dahua Yao Autonomous County, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. [Photo/Xinhua]

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.

The problem is, left-behind children suffer not only from material poverty but also from the lack of parental care. For them, parents mean nothing but the monthly supply of money and two visitors once a year.

Even if the government and families provide enough money for them to survive, that cannot compensate for the loss of emotional support children need for their healthy development. Money cannot replace the love and care of parents; neither can people buy the atmosphere of a good, harmonious family with money.

Therefore, the key solution to the problem lies in making it possible for left-behind children to live together with their parents. Considering that most left-behind children come from less developed even underdeveloped regions, the plan can be realized in two possible ways.

First, raising the living standards of migrant workers so that they can bring children with them; second, developing the rural regions and preventing the urban-rural gap from further widening so that migrant workers can work not so far away from home. That's also a key point emphasized by the State Council in its document.