Ministry to expand projects for children
Print Edition
CHINESE Premier Li Keqiang has ordered an investigation into the death of four “left behind” children who apparently committed suicide by drinking pesticide in a poor part of southwestern China, as millions of people leave loved ones to find work.
In many rural parts of China, children are left in villages to be looked after by grandparents or other relatives while their parents work in the booming cities.
Five officials were punished following the deaths of a 13-year-old boy and his three young sisters who had been fending for themselves at home in Bijie in Guizhou Province.
Yang Qian, deputy director of Bijie City’s Qixingguan District, Ye Rong, the district’s education chief, and Xue Tingmeng, an administrator in Cizhu Village, were all suspended. Nie Zongxian, Tiankan Township’s Party chief, and Chen Mingfu, its director, were sacked, local government said yesterday.
Six others, including the village Party chief and a primary school headmaster, are to receive disciplinary punishments and anyone suspected of breaking the law will be transferred to prosecutors.
The children, the youngest of whom was just 5 years old, drank pesticide on Tuesday night. They were admitted to hospital in Bijie but died despite emergency treatment.
The boy, Zhang Qigang, left a note which read: “Thank you all for your kindness ... but it’s time for me to go. I’ve planned this for long time and today it is the time,” China Central Television reported.
Yesterday, Premier Li ordered authorities to take steps to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. He ordered authorities to “increase supervision” so that social security mechanisms do not “become a mere formality,” according to a statement published on the central government website.
Those found to have not done their job properly will be held accountable. “This tragedy cannot happen again,” it said.
In 2012, five homeless children in the same city died of carbon monoxide poisoning after lighting a fire while seeking shelter in a rubbish bin.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs is to review its social welfare network and offer psychological help for the needy. Ministry spokesman Chen Rifa said the decision was made following the latest deaths.
The ministry will look into social welfare services nationwide, especially emergency relief for the needy. The government will try to not only offer financial relief, but also psychological assistance, Chen said.
The ministry has already run pilot projects for children whose parents are absent because of illness, disability, imprisonment, drug use or negligence. The pilot projects will be expanded, Chen said.
It will also work with other departments, nongovernmental organizations and village communities to launch a special service for rural children who are left behind by migrant worker parents, he said.
More than 61 million rural children are looked after by grandparents or other relatives while their parents find work far from home, according to an All-China Women’s Federation survey.
The figure accounts for 37.7 percent of the total number of children in rural areas.
The dead children’s mother Ren Xifen has been brought back to Bijie from Guizhou’s neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region but refused to go to the funeral house, CCTV reported, without giving reasons behind her refusal.
Their father Zhang Fangqi contacted local officials to say he was coming back today, the Legal Evening News reported.
Officials said Ren left home in March 2014 after a violent argument with her husband. Zhang left in March this year to find work.
Pan Ling, a distant relative, told Xinhua news agency that the children’s paternal grandparents were dead while their other grandparents lived too far away to be able to look after them.
CCTV said the children often skipped class and had not been seen at school since May 8.
A bankbook found after the tragedy contained about 3,500 yuan (US$564) and a large quantity of food was stored in the house.
Pan said the boy had once been beaten by his father so severely that one of his arms was dislocated.
In August 2012, he ran away from home, for which he was made to stand naked under the sun for two hours as punishment.
Another relative told Xinhua the boy had once tried to kill himself by jumping into a river after a beating.
Hu Heifeng, an official in Tiankan, the township which administers the village, said village officials and teachers visited several times. Sometimes the children would refuse to open the door.
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