Stay-behind or migrate? A sad childhood for 100 million Chinese children

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Chinese newspaper Caixin writes that no country in the world has such a huge population of children that live away from their parents.They are the 60 million left-behind children in China’s rural areas and many are only able to meet their parents once a year. Most of the children are taken care of by elderly grandparents but it is estimated that two million live alone without any guardian. As an effect of long-time separation with their parents, loss of family ties, and weakening of family education, their living standards, mental and psychical health, and environment for growth is worse off than ordinary children. More strikingly, the rates of unnatural deaths and sexual assault in this population are also higher than that of the children living with their parents. In China, there are also 36 million migrant children. 80% of them come from rural villages. Although they are not left-behind by their parents, they also face many problems surviving on the periphery of urban society.

Caixin included the following infographic in their report:

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