“Almost all of the parents of children in the village work in large cities to get betterincomes,” said villager Chen Weigao, 63. “Most of the kids are taken care of by theirgrandparents.”
For 13 years, Chen Weizhou, 57, and his 53-year-old wife have been the only onestaking care of Chen Yanhuai, Chen Jian and Yue Cuiwei.
“For me, that day was the end of the world,” said the devastated grandfather, whowhen interviewed by China Daily reporters simply kept repeating: “I feel so sorry for mysons and daughters. I was supposed to take good care of their children but I did a bad job.”
At least 17 youngsters drowned in rivers, lakes and streams across Anhui between Juneand July, according to figures released by the Anhui education bureau. Most victims wereleft-behind children in rural areas.
“Sometimes we try to catch spiral shells near the river in summer,” said a 10-yearoldboy who lives beside Shahe River, “but no one has come near here to play since theaccident.”
Li Yu, 34, the mother of Chen Yanhuai, who also has a daughter, has run a grocerystore with her husband in Foshan, Guangdong province, for more than a decade. She saidher son had been expected to spend the summer in the city with them.
The couple, who rushed home after hearing of the accident, had considered taking theirson to Foshan many times but was put off by the expensive school tuition fees, she said.
“For a non-permanent resident in Guangdong, it would have cost about 20,000 yuan(3,000) to enroll him in a primary school,” said Li, who explained that the sum was theequivalent of her family’s entire annual income. “It was almost impossible for us to affordbut my husband and I were working hard to raise the money.”
The parents of Chen Jian said they had experienced the same problem.
“I felt my heart breaking to pieces every time I left home after Spring Festival (theChinese Lunar New Year and a traditional time for migrant workers to return home),” saidXie Zhenyue, the boy’s mother, who has sold fruit with her husband in Beijing for six years.
“I knew he wanted to stay with me but it was so hard for us to get him educated inBeijing,” she added while crying.
As well as grieving for her lost son, Li now must decide how to improve the life of herdaughter, Chen Ting, and prevent her from being involved in a similar tragedy.
Although she will start primary school in September 2010, the 6-year-old speaksthe local Anhui dialect and barely understands a word of Mandarin, largely because theonly people she communicates with are her grandparents. She is shy and withdrawn andresponds to most questions with a simple shake or nod of the head.
Like her brothers, she will go through childhood with very little contact with herparents.
Language of learning
A 2008 study on the living conditions of left-behind children by the All-ChinaWomen’s Federation found that 34 percent of rural guardians - read elderly relatives -said they only have enough time to “keep an occasional eye on them”.
About 8 percent felt they did not have enough time to ensure their charge’s safety.
“These children make up a large proportion of the country’s young generation,” saidLiu Zhengkui, an associate research fellow with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Ifthe mental health of left-behind children is ignored, over time they may grow up to beindifferent and irresponsible members of society.”
Huo Shunyan, 60, looks after his 18-month-old grandson in Chenjia village, yet theboy still cannot speak a recognizable word in either Mandarin or Anhui dialect.
“We do not see anything wrong with that,” said Huo. “Most children here grow upwith their grandparents and we just don’t have much time to talk with them. We need towork in the field and prepare three meals a day.”
Research by Liu Xia, a doctor with Beijing Normal University’s developmentpsychology center, showed that left-behind children generally suffer a lower sense of dignityand life satisfaction than children who live with their parents.
Government activities are regularly organized to help youngsters cope with the mentalstrain.
On July 29, the Hunan provincial government paid for 19 children from Shaoyangcounty to travel to Dongguan, an industrial city in Guangdong, to spend the summer withtheir migrant worker parents.
Yet, experts say that, ultimately, parental care is essential to a child’s sounddevelopment.
“Living in their hometowns with grandparents is not good for a child’s futuredevelopment,” Wang Yongzhen at Zhejiang Normal University told the People’s Daily in arecent interview. “It is much better for the kids to grow up with their parents working inbig cities.”
August 18, 2010