Child welfare in China.

The Law on the Protection of Minors in People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates measures such as family protection, school protection, social protection and judicial protection, and makes various provisions on children's welfare. The contents of child welfare in China mainly include the following aspects:

1. Children's health care facilities and services

The health department implements the vaccination system for children, actively prevents and treats common and frequently-occurring diseases of children, strengthens the supervision and management of the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, and provides professional guidance on the health care work of kindergartens. In addition, the state has set up children's hospitals specifically for children's medical treatment, or set up pediatrics in general hospitals. At the same time, it has carried out children's health care work, and regularly carried out children's health examinations and vaccinations to make children grow up healthily.

2. Places and conditions for children's activities

The state and society are responsible for establishing and popularizing nurseries and kindergartens to provide good activities, living conditions and care services for infants and young children; Establish children's activity centers, children's palaces, youth activity stations, children's parks, children's playgrounds and other places for children's activities and learning. In addition, museums, memorial halls, science and technology museums, cultural centers, theaters, gymnasiums, zoos, parks and other places offer preferential treatment to primary and secondary school students. In addition, the state encourages state organs, social organizations, enterprises and institutions, other social organizations and individual citizens to set up nursing rooms, nurseries and kindergartens, and advocates and supports the establishment of family nurseries to carry out various forms of social activities conducive to the healthy growth of children.

3. Universal compulsory education

In the Education Law of the People's Republic of China and the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Compulsory Education Law, the following provisions are made on children's educational welfare: ① The state implements nine-year compulsory education. All children over the age of 6, regardless of gender, nationality or race, should receive compulsory education for a specified number of years. Areas that do not have the conditions can be postponed to 7 years old. Local people's governments at all levels shall reasonably set up primary schools and junior high schools so that children and adolescents can enter schools nearby. At the same time, special education schools (classes) are held for blind, deaf-mute and mentally retarded children. The state exempts students who receive compulsory education from tuition fees. Set up grants to help poor students go to school. The State Council and the local people's governments at all levels are responsible for raising and ensuring the funds needed for compulsory education and capital construction investment. (4) Local people's governments at all levels create various conditions to enable school-age children to learn and receive compulsory education. If school-age children do not go to school to receive compulsory education, the local people's government shall criticize and educate their parents or other guardians, and take effective measures to order them to send their children or guardians to study. Organizations and individuals that recruit school-age children for employment shall be criticized and educated by the local people's government and ordered to stop recruiting. If the circumstances are serious, a fine may be imposed or the business license revoked.

Schools should respect the right to education of minor students, and may not expel students at will. Teachers and staff in schools and kindergartens should respect the personal dignity of minors, and may not impose corporal punishment, disguised corporal punishment or other acts that insult their personal dignity. Schools shall not allow underage students to engage in activities that endanger personal safety and health in school buildings and other educational and teaching facilities.

4. Children's daily life guarantee

Children's right to life and health should be protected. Parents or other guardians shall perform their guardianship duties and support obligations for children according to law, and shall not abuse or abandon children; Do not discriminate against girls or children with disabilities; It is forbidden to drown or abandon babies. Parents or other guardians should also educate children with healthy thoughts, behaviors and appropriate methods, guide them to carry out activities beneficial to physical and mental health, and prevent and stop children from smoking, drinking, wandering, gambling and taking drugs.

5. Children's Welfare Home

Children's Welfare Institute refers to a social welfare institution organized by China's civil affairs departments in our city to adopt orphans. Its main task is to adopt orphans who are homeless, have no source of income, and have no obligation to support them, and adopt children whose families are unable to support them. Children's welfare homes are staffed with doctors, nurses, nurses and cultural teachers, who are responsible for the life care, rehabilitation training and cultural education of children, abandoned babies and disabled children. The life of these children is generally maintained at a moderate level equivalent to that of local residents.

6.SOS Children's Village

SOS Children's Village is an international social welfare facility for orphans, which was founded by Austrian Herman Gmeiner. After World War II, Gmeiner launched the SOS Children's Village Movement, aiming to make all lonely children in the world have homes. A simulated family unit in a children's village generally consists of 15 to 20 "families". Each family recruits a "housewife" to raise 12 orphans of different ages, and they live together as brothers and sisters of the family until they can live independently and take care of themselves. The conditions for children's villages to recruit orphans are as follows: parents are both dead, and there is no legal supporter or legal supporter; Under 8 years old, healthy physically and mentally, normal development, no family history of hereditary diseases. The children's village is led by the village head, and the managers include the village head assistant, mother, mother's assistant, teachers and logistics personnel. Orphans in children's villages study in nearby schools and move to SOS Youth Village after puberty until they are completely independent. At present, SOS Children's Villages have been established in Tianjin, Yantai, Qiqihar, Chengdu, Nanchang and Kaifeng.

7. Rehabilitation services for disabled children

The state has set up rehabilitation service centers for disabled children, providing outpatient and family consultation for disabled children, and carrying out various functional training, medical treatment, education and vocational training to reduce their disabilities, help them recover their self-care and working ability, and create conditions for them to enter the society. According to the specific situation of children's physical and mental disorders, various localities have set up rehabilitation institutions such as rehabilitation centers for deaf-mute children to concentrate on comprehensive medical treatment for disabled children, so that they can overcome or alleviate the pain caused by diseases or disabilities as soon as possible and grow up healthily and happily.

(2) Laws, regulations and programmatic documents concerning children's welfare.

1. Laws and regulations on child welfare

Based on the national conditions, China has formulated a series of laws and regulations on children's survival and development, referring to the laws and international documents protecting children's rights and interests all over the world, and has formed a relatively complete legal system for children's welfare.

1986 On April 12, the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People's Congress passed the Compulsory Education Law of People's Republic of China (PRC).

In September 1989, 1 1, the State Education Commission issued the Regulations on Kindergarten Management.

1991April 15, the State Council issued the Regulations on Prohibiting the Use of Child Labour.

1991September 4th, the 21st meeting of the 7th the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) passed the Law on the Protection of Minors in People's Republic of China (PRC).

1992 On February 29th, the State Council issued the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Compulsory Education Law in People's Republic of China (PRC).

1July 2, 9941day, the State Education Commission issued the "Trial Measures for Carrying out the Work of Learning Disabled Children in Regular Classes".

1On October 27th, the 10th meeting of the 8th the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) passed the Law of the People's Republic of China on Maternal and Infant Health Care.

1994165438+1October 15. The Press and Publication Administration issued Several Provisions on Publishing Children's Books.

1994 65438+On February 9th, the Ministry of Labor issued the Special Protection Provisions for Underage Workers.

65438-0994 The Ministry of Health and the State Education Commission issued the Measures for the Administration of Health Care in Nurseries and Kindergartens.

1995 March 18, the third session of the Eighth National People's Congress passed the Education Law of the People's Republic of China.

1On August 27th, 996, the Ministry of Health issued the Measures for Hygienic Supervision of Students' Collective Dining.

1998 On March 2, the State Education Commission and the Ministry of Public Security issued the Interim Measures for Migrant Children and Adolescents to Go to School.

On June 28th, the 10th meeting of the 9th the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) passed the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency in People's Republic of China (PRC).

On June 65438+1 October1day, 2002, the State Council issued the Regulations on Prohibiting the Use of Child Labour. 199 1 The Provisions on Prohibiting the Use of Child Labour promulgated on April 5, was abolished on the same day.

2. A programmatic document on child welfare

1On August 29th, 990, our government signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. 19911On February 29th, the NPC Standing Committee decided to approve China's accession to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which took effect on April 2nd. 1992. In order to fulfill its promise, China has formulated two programmatic documents on children's welfare, namely, the Outline of Children's Development Planning in China in the 1990s and the Outline of Children's Development in China in 20001-2010, respectively, in the 1990s and in the first half of the 20th century.

Development and challenges of children's welfare

1. Development of child welfare

Children's welfare originated from the western children's rescue cause, and its primary stage is mainly the rescue and adoption of special children, which belongs to the passive child welfare. Since the 20th century, children's welfare has gradually developed into an active social undertaking to promote the all-round development of all children. Since the founding of New China, the welfare of children in China has gone through such a development process. Under the guidance of the government's child welfare policy, great progress has been made in the universal child welfare of all children in China:

(1) parenting. In the early days of the People's Republic of China, the government distributed baby food in some areas; Popularizing scientific diet system in 1960s and 1970s; The development of supplementary food in 1980s; In the 1990s, breast-feeding was promoted and the diet structure was optimized. Through these measures, the nutritional status of children has been greatly improved.

(2) Children's education. The government has always placed children's education in the priority position of the whole education development, continuously increased investment in education and made great progress. In recent years, with the joint efforts of the government and the whole society, China has basically achieved nine-year compulsory education, and many indicators have priority over other developing countries, and some are close to the level of developed countries.

(3) Children's health. Our government and all walks of life attach great importance to children's health and health care: in the 1950 s, children's immunization activities were promoted throughout the country; 1978, national immunization program for children; In the 1980s, children's immunization procedures were unified, and children's vaccination certificate system was implemented, which further developed planned immunization. At present, China has established a maternal and child health care service system in line with the national conditions, and initially established a three-level medical prevention and health care network throughout urban and rural areas to provide health care and planned immunization services for children.

(4) Children's entertainment. In order to create good conditions for children's entertainment and games, many facilities such as children's palaces, children's parks, children's amusement parks and children's libraries have been established in various places, providing a good environment and convenient conditions for children's happy life.

In addition, great achievements have been made in the welfare of special children. Since the founding of New China, a large number of special schools have been established in China, ensuring that most deaf-mute and mentally retarded children receive education and life care. Children's welfare homes have been established to take care of the lives, education and rehabilitation of orphans, disabled children and abandoned babies. The state has enacted the Adoption Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), which enables orphans and disabled children to enter normal families, cultivate normal family feelings and master the skills of entering society. Using international strength, SOS Children's Village was established, which enabled orphans to regain maternal love and family warmth. With the assistance of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Health and other departments and all members of society, operations to correct polio, cataracts and other diseases were carried out, which greatly improved the health level of children and promoted the rehabilitation of disabled children.

2. Challenges to children's welfare

With the development of social economy, a series of new problems have appeared in the construction of children's welfare system in China, which makes children's welfare face new challenges.

(1) The problem of children with special difficulties. With the passage of time, children's welfare homes mainly raise orphans and disabled children, but also expose some defects: First, the supply of funds is tight. Second, when children who are brought up in a centralized way grow up, it is difficult for them to adapt to society and really integrate into social life because they have been isolated from society for a long time.

From the international experience, the new model of family foster care can make orphans and disabled children better integrate into the family and society, and help orphans and disabled children return to the family and society. Therefore, family foster care should become the trend of the times. However, there are also some problems in the family foster care model: First, the responsibility of foster families. In some families, especially rural families, parents accept foster children in order to increase their income, and they don't know enough about the psychological needs and educational needs of foster children. Second, the way out for foster children in adulthood is the most difficult problem to solve in the foster care system. It is an effective solution to change from foster care to adoption, but due to factors such as children's disability, it brings certain economic expenses and employment risks to adoptive families. Therefore, the proportion of foster care really converted into adoption is low. Third, the issue of foster care funds. Due to the limited financial allocation in China, the expenditure of foster care funds is tight. Fourth, the lack of relevant laws. The laws and policies in all aspects of foster care are still not perfect.

(2) Welfare assistance for street children. From 65438 to 0982, China formulated the Measures for the Reception and Repatriation of Urban Vagrants and Beggars, and established a system for the reception and repatriation of street children in China. In 2003, the detention and repatriation system officially bid farewell to history, and on August 1 day of the same year, the new "Management Measures for the Relief of Vagrants and Beggars Without Living in Cities" was implemented. This method emphasizes "voluntary assistance", and stipulates that only vagrants and beggars make requests and express their willingness to accept assistance can the rescue station implement assistance, which embodies humanized management. However, there is a lack of legal provisions for vagrants and beggars who refuse government assistance. However, the Law on the Protection of Minors in People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates the necessity of assistance, and the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency also stipulates that parents or other guardians of minors shall not let minors under 16 live alone without supervision. These laws are contradictory, which restricts the effective development of rescue work. Moreover, the new management method stipulates that the detention period of street children is 10 day, but in practice, 10 day cannot completely solve the problem of a street child.

In addition, there is a puzzling problem. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child signed by China recognizes that children exist as independent individuals, have the right to make their own decisions and need to be respected. The Measures for the Administration of Relief for Vagrants and Beggars Living in Cities also emphasizes "voluntary relief" for children. This situation has led some illegal organizations to use minors to beg and engage in illegal activities in busy areas of large and medium-sized cities, which has seriously endangered the social order of cities and caused adverse social consequences.

(3) Improve the welfare level of children. With the development of social economy, people's material and spiritual needs are constantly improving, so the level of children's welfare is also facing higher and higher requirements. Orphans and disabled children in welfare homes also hope to receive formal education and vocational skills training like ordinary children; Can widely participate in social life, gain social recognition and realize their own value. Disabled children need professional experts and institutions to provide them with targeted rehabilitation guidance, professional information and consulting services.

(d) Child welfare problems and solutions

China's child welfare involves education, health, special protection and many other aspects, but the relevant provisions are too general, resulting in the actual effect in actual operation is not ideal.

1. Child welfare issues

(1) There are more people invested by the government and less social participation. For the protection of children, the participation of social forces is not enough in raising funds and operating institutions.

(2) The construction of rural health service network lags behind. Children in rural areas cannot be guaranteed to enjoy basic medical and health care services, and children from poor families cannot get good medical services because of their family conditions.

(3) Inequality in children's education still exists. The concept of gender discrimination affects girls' educational opportunities and hinders the real implementation of equal rights in education; There is still a huge difference in children's education between urban and rural areas; Disabled children, orphans and floating population still face some obstacles in the right to education.

(4) Lack of legal protection responsibility for children. Guardians and schools infringe on children's legitimate rights and interests, and parents sometimes harm children's health and even life, but the law lacks corresponding measures; Commercial organizations are driven by interests, and it is still common to use children to make huge profits. Regrettably, however, China has not yet enacted a child welfare law.

2. Solutions to children's welfare problems

(1) Adhere to the basic principle of "children first". When formulating relevant policies, the state should embody the principle of "children first", guarantee children's rights to survival, development, protection and participation, improve their overall quality and promote their healthy physical and mental development.

(2) Ensuring children's basic living and medical care. Improve the medical security system to ensure that children enjoy basic medical and health care services; Establish disease relief funds for poor families through multiple channels to help children from poor families get necessary medical assistance; Urban floating population children's health care, etc.

(3) Vigorously develop children's education and guarantee children's right to education. Rational allocation of educational resources, narrowing the gap between regions and urban and rural areas, and ensuring children's equal right to education; Providing educational assistance to children from poor families; Improve the schooling system for children of floating population; Remove the obstacles that prevent girls from attending school and guarantee their right to education; We will implement relevant preferential policies for disabled children and orphans to attend school and effectively protect their right to education.

(4) Strengthen legislation, establish and improve laws and regulations on children's welfare. Strengthen the protection of children's basic rights, conscientiously implement the People's Republic of China (PRC) Law on the Protection of Minors, the People's Republic of China (PRC) Adoption Law, the People's Republic of China (PRC) Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency and other laws and regulations, and strictly implement the CJL Convention on the Rights of the Child; Cracking down on illegal and criminal acts that infringe on children's legitimate rights and interests according to law; Set up children's legal aid institutions to provide children with various forms of legal aid services. Formulate a child welfare law to speed up the legalization and socialization of child welfare.

(5) Establish a child welfare development mechanism combining government and people. The state encourages and supports social organizations or individuals to set up various child welfare facilities, organize folk child welfare activities, increase the participation of folk forces, advocate the whole society to care for and help children grow up healthily, and promote the progress and development of child welfare.