On January 15th, 2015, the State Council published the «Plan for the development of children in impoverished areas 2014 – 2020» that should benefit 40 million children. The plan aims at bringing the living conditions of these children up to national standards.
Even though China has accomplished much in terms of child protection, much remains to be done. In fact more than 40 million children in impoverished areas still experience hardship with regards to their health, education, and other areas. China recognises that this situation must change, because providing fair and equal protection to all children in China will benefit immensely its society.
The main scopes of this plan are to bring the living conditions of children in impoverished areas up to the same level of the other regions in China by 2020. The plan tackles issues such as infant mortality rates, health related issues, and education.
The main points included in the plan are:
- Improving maternal and afterbirth care
- Improving and publicize material on childbirth, and infants
- Fighting malnourishment, in both newborn and children
- Improving nutrition in schools
- Providing free and better medical care to children
- Increasing hygiene conditions
- Guaranteeing compulsory education
- Ameliorating the system that deals with children facing especially difficult situations (children with disabilities, orphans, left-behind children, etc.)
