• Welfare of Children
  • (1) Expand the scope of child welfare and promote the shift from a stop-gap approach to one that is moderately universal.

    (2) Guarantee children's access to basic medical and health care services and raise the coverage and level of children's basic medical security. Provide medical aid to children from poverty-stricken families and to children suffering from serious diseases.

    (3) Basically meet the public service needs of migrant and "left-behind children" .

    (4) Meet orphans' basic, living, education, medical care and equal employment opportunity needs, and raise the family fostering and adoption rate of orphans.

    (5) Raise the rescue and recovery rate of disabled children aged 0-6.

    (6) Reduce the number of street children and their recurring vagrancy.

    (7) Increase the number of professional service institutions equipped to rear orphans, protect street children and rehabilitate disabled children. Set up a child welfare institution that performs the comprehensive functions of rearing, medical rehabilitation, education and skills training, and an aid and protection institution for street children in cities above the prefecture level and in key counties (or county-level cities).

    (8) Guarantee the rights of HIV/AIDS-affected children and children of convicts under the age of 18 to livelihood, education, health care and equal employment opportunities.

    Strategies and Measures:

    (1) Raise the supply capacity and level of public services for children. Improve the basic public service system, increase financial investment in child welfare, and progressively realize equalization of basic public services for children.

    (2) Ensure children's access to basic health care. Improve children's basic medical insurance within the framework of the basic medical insurance system for urban residents and/or the new rural cooperative medical care system. Progressively upgrade the level of basic medical insurance for children and alleviate the burden of medical expenses on the families of sick children.

    (3) Raise the level of medical assistance for children. Increase medical aid to children suffering from serious diseases and children from impoverished families. Give subsidies, according to relevant regulations, to children from impoverished families and to orphans and disabled children who have participated in either basic medical insurance for urban residents and/or new rural cooperative medical care system, to help pay the individual portion of their medical costs.

    (4) Expand the scope of child welfare. Improve the security system of minimum living standards for urban and rural residents. Provide security through categorization to elevate the living standards of children from poverty-stricken families. Explore methods of carrying out nutritional interventions and providing subsidies to children, and improve children's nutritional status. Progressively raise the standards and widen the scope of living allowances applicable to impoverished students at rural boarding schools that provide compulsory education.

    (5) Establish and improve the security system for orphans. Implement orphans' social security policy to meet their living, education, medical rehabilitation and housing needs. Help able-bodied orphans of an appropriate age find jobs. Establish a surrogate raising system to ensure that HIV/AIDS-affected children and the minor children of convicts have access to livelihood, education, medical care and equal opportunities in employment.

    (6) Improve fostering and the service mode for orphans. Improve the establishment of child welfare institutions and raise the overall management and service level of these institutions. Explore a rearing mode to suit orphans' physical and mental development. Improve the orphan adoption system, standardize the home fostering system and encourage social sponsorship. Establish and improve a system of supervision, support and evaluation of home fostering and rearing under guardianship, and improve the rearing quality of home-fostered orphans and of orphans under the guardianship of their relatives.

    (7) Establish and improve the rehabilitation, aid and service system for disabled children. Establish a registration system for disabled children aged 0-6 and provide children from poverty-stricken families with subsidies, according to relevant regulations, to meet their basic recovery needs. Give priority to the treatment and rehabilitation system for rescuing disabled children and improve the professional service level of rehabilitation institutions for disabled children. Set up a rehabilitation and service system for disabled children by making professional rehabilitation institutions the system mainstay, communities the foundation and families the supporter. Reinforce rehabilitation referral services for disabled children and carry out multi-layered vocational training and practical skills training to enhance disabled children's self-care abilities, social adaptability and equal participation in social life.

    (8) Enhance the relief and protection of street children. Improve the aid and protection network for street children and the system safeguarding street children's living, education, management and trips back to their hometowns. Provide street children with education, medical services, psychological guidance, behavioral adjustment, and skills training. Raise the professional and socialized levels of aiding and protecting street children, encourage and support all social sectors to protect and help them. Explore an early prevention and intervention mechanism to deal with the issue of street children.

    (9) Establish and improve the service mechanism for migrant children and "left-behind children." Proactively and steadily promote the reform of the household registration system and social security system and progressively incorporate the migrant population into local economic and social development plans. Establish a registration system for migrant children aged under 16 to lay a solid foundation for them to enjoy public services such as education and medical and health care. Integrate community resources to improve the community-based and floating population-oriented management and service network, and raise community service consciousness and improve community service abilities. Improve the service mechanism for "left-behind children" in rural areas, enhance psychological, emotional and behavioral guidance for these children and improve their parents' sense of guardianship and responsibility.