More ‘left-behind’ children getting left behind bars

(Ecns.cn) -- A growing number of kids "left behind" by their migrant-worker parents are turning to crime, a problem mostly affecting China's rural areas, experts say.

Earlier this year police in Beiliu, a county-level city in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, took down two gangs of bank robbers. Nearly 20 people involved, including 11 drug addicts, were all born in the 90s.

Police said the kids were all being brought up by their grandparents, and stole money from banks to buy drugs.

In February, police captured three kids suspected of a series of robberies in Guangxi's Hefu County. The oldest was 18, the youngest 14. Police said the motive was to get money to play computer games.

Statistics from the All-China Women's Federation show that China had 58 million left-behind children in 2009. About 79.7 percent of them were in the care of their grandparents, 13 percent were staying with other relatives and 7.3 percent were on their own completely.

According to an official from the Changsha Intermediate People's Court in Hunan Province, 10 percent of all crimes in 2008 were committed by people between 16 to 18 years of age. The proportion had grown to 17 percent by 2010.

A research conducted by rural police in Hunan shows that most juvenile offenders begin skipping school when they are 10-12 years old. The majority of the young offenders they surveyed had spent only six to eight years in school.

Once they quit, at an average age of 13, many have already committed crimes such as minor assault or theft. By 17, some have committed serious crimes, according to Want China Times, a Taiwan-based English website.

Family, school and community should be three "safety nets" for children, yet many left-behind children in rural areas are ignored by their hometowns and don't listen to their families or obey school rules, pointed out Banyuetan magazine.

Mr. Wei, a builder in Nanning, Guangxi's capital, told reporters from the magazine that he felt estranged from his children, who had been cared for by his parents since they were very young.

"Their grandparents spoil them. We are really worried about their future," said Wei.

"For children who are cared for by grandparents or relatives, lack of communication and counseling often causes psychological problems and hinders their development," Ouyang Wen, a judge who hears juvenile cases at Guangxi's high court, told Want China Times.

Schools also find it tough to educate left-behind kids. A schoolmaster in Dayang County of Guiping told Banyuetan that most of the school's 1,000 students are left-behind kids, and they are often rebellious and undisciplined.

Mei Zhigang, a sociology professor at Central China Normal University, said that schools in rural areas lack teachers and facilities and are already struggling to give lectures, let alone provide special counseling for troubled students.

A village official added that some parents even turn a blind eye when their children quit school because of the high cost of tuition. They also realize that an expensive college education, should their child reach that stage, does not guarantee a decent job.

"When children quit school, they are more likely to take up smoking, gambling, drugs and eventually commit more serious crimes such as theft and manslaughter," said Judge Ouyang Wen.

Reporters found that a large number of villages and counties have Internet bars and gaming halls – breeding grounds for crime.

An owner of a grocery store in Guangxi's Wulizhen said the two Internet bars in the county are always crowded with kids who not only skip classes to play computer games, but also steal to get money for other entertainments.

Supervision of those places should be strengthened as soon as possible, he suggested.

Mei Zhigang said that to root out the problem, government should speed up reforms of the household registration system (hukou) to reduce gaps in employment, health care, housing and education between urbanites and farmers.

Companies should also be encouraged to expand businesses into small- and mid-size cities, Mei added, which will help villagers find jobs near their hometowns and reduce the number of left-behind children.