HEZHOU, China – Statistics indicate that some 130 million farmers have left their home villages in 2007 to join the ranks of migrant workers in cities across China and become the main labour force in construction, manufacturing, textile, processing and tertiary sectors. 

Meanwhile, over 58 million children are left in their rural homes to the care of grandparents or relatives. Among them, those under 14 account for more than 40 million. 

However, the financial crisis triggered by sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States in 2007 soon spread to the world and left its footprints on Chinese migrant workers whose livelihood rely heavily on foreign orders.

 In Dongguan City, Guangdong province alone, 909 foreign-owned enterprises were closed down in 2007. By mid-2008, revealed the National Development and Reform Commission, 67,000 small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) had gone bust. 

Latest reports from the SMEs Research Centre of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences shows that 40 percent of China’s SMEs have been bankrupt in the sweeping financial crisis. Based on the 2008 figure of 43 million SMEs, the number failed entities could exceed 17.2 million. 

 As a result, it is estimated that some 20 million migrant workers affected by the economic downturn were forced to return home in 2008. Although many take this as a blessing in disguise, at least for those love-thirsty children, it soon turned out otherwise.

The All China Women’s Federation (ACWF) has sponsored a nationwide research on the impact of returning farmers on their children.  “Some 80 percent of returned farmers would go back to cities anyway and the phenomenon of left-behind children is here to stay,” said Zhao Donghua, team leader of the research.

According to her, the difficulty in finding jobs or working for a reduced pay have led to a higher risk of discontinuing education for their school-age children. 

Read the main story at: http://crisisandchildren.ipsnewsasia.net/2010/01/11/china-what-price-young-lives/

(Ma Guihua and Jiang Guibin, China Features)