Fears of left-behind island kids going wrong
Print Edition
CHILDREN left behind on Chongming Island while their parents come to work in Shanghai’s downtown areas are in danger of running wild, legal experts have warned.
More than 4,000 children are thought to be left on the island at the mouth of the Yangtze River — often under the care of grandparents — while their parents are in downtown. There many work as taxi drivers.
“It’s much easier for the left-behind children, often immature and lacking a loving home, to become caught up in sex and violence,” said Xing Guangying, an executive official at the Chongming County prosecutors office.
According to some studies, many such children suffer from feelings of inferiority and lack self control.
Chongming County — which includes the 1,041 square kilometer Chongming Island and the smaller islands of Changxing and Hengsha — is about 70 kilometers from downtown Shanghai and has a population of around 700,000.
Recent figures showed that 4,159 children there are left by their parents who work in the city. Some 3500 of Shanghai’s taxi drivers come from Chongming — a third of the total number.
Costs and time make it impractical for most islanders to commute to the mainland.
Wang Jing, the sub-prefect of Chongming, said the toll for driving through the Shanghai Changjiang Tunnel-Bridge is 50 yuan (US$8), while taking a bus or a ferry costs at least 30 yuan.
Making the journey by car can take around one and a half hours and for the other vehicles it will be even longer.
Xing was involved in a drug dealing case last year involving a boy, identified as “Xiao Zhang,” living with his grandmother.
Xing found the boy had been raised by his father after his parents divorced when he was very young.
The boy’s father later moved to downtown Shanghai for work, leaving Xiao Zhang at home with his grandmother.
Without parental guidance, Xiao Zhang, rebelled, taking up smoking and skipping classes, said Xing.
He dropped out of school and after a short-time working at a city restaurant, began hanging out in cyber cafes where he was introduced to the world of drugs, she added.
Warmth needed
Xing told a similar story of a 14 and 16-year-old caught stealing scooters from a residential complex, which they sold to fund their cyber cafe habits
During dealings with the boys, prosecutors felt that the pair, who stayed with grandparents, were good kids who just need some warmth — and classes on the laws, said Xing.
Now the older boy has found a job and works hard, while prosecutors are helping the younger one to regain his schooling, she added.
Chongming sub-prefect Wang said islanders move through necessity.
“Marked as a rural and less developed area, the main industry here is agriculture, and we have no large-scale industries to provide enough jobs for every villager,” said Wang.
“So we approve of able-bodied adults going to work outside the islands to find a better life,” Wang added.
Local government says it is trying to fill this parental vacuum.
An educational information sharing system has been set in all primary and middle schools in Chongming.
And the local education commission and women’s federation hold events and have set up a fund and offices in villages for these children.
Prosecutors are also doing their bit, with projects where the children can try their hand at “legal work.”
The plight of many left behind children is summed up by an 11-year-old Chongming boy, nicknamed “Xiao Jun,” who sees his father just once a year and his mother every one or two months.
When asked if he calls his parents when he misses them, Xiao Jun said he doesn’t because they may be busy at work.
“What I really want is for them to spend more time with me,” he said.
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