Caring for Migrant Women, Girls

During the past three decades, I have worked at the All-China Women's Federation, the Women of China Magazine Publishing House and the National Working Committee on Women and Children. I attended the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, and I attended the 'Beijing+5' meeting to mark the fifth anniversary of the conference in Beijing in 2000.

I have paid special attention to the development of migrant women and children in China. In the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, both of which were adopted during the conference, the girl-child is a critical area of concern. 

According to statistics issued by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, China in 2010 had 96.83 million left-behind children (whose parents left their rural hometowns to work in cities) and migrant children (who followed their parents to live in the cities). In recent years, the Chinese Government has introduced policies to address issues related to such children.

In 2012, I conducted a survey on marriage and the family living conditions of migrant workers. The results indicated 58.2 percent of the children lived with their parents in the cities. The fact the children no longer lived apart from their parents was a sign of social progress.

I also discovered a noteworthy issue during the survey; of the left-behind children of preschool, primary and middle school ages, girls tended to outnumber boys, and the parents preferred to take boys to live with them in cities, so the boys could live in better conditions and receive a better education. That indicates some rural parents still prefer boys to girls. However, parents usually ask their daughters, especially those aged 16-17, to live with them in cities, so the girls can work and earn money. The girls don't receive much education and don't have skills. Their future development is restricted. The problem deserves more attention from society. 

(Women of China)