From Only-children to Street Children - 中欧社会论坛 - China Europa Forum

From Only-children to Street Children

Shifts of children’s statute in evolving China

Authors: Isabelle ATTANE

Date: 2006

Published by AIDELF

URL: www.prisme-asso.org/IMG/pdf/chine_3.pdf

The coming of reforms in the late 70s, and a strong economic growth, did not favour a true social transition in China, understood as a striving for equity and a higher wellbeing. On the contrary, the current upheavals are causing the country to shift from a more or less egalitarian system to a more and more inegalitarian one, thus weakening the once universal access to employment, health, education… The economic and demographic transition is source to strong inequalities in various areas of social life, and children are no exception to that process. The present Chinese society produces, among others, two categories of children, at both ends of the social scale: only-children, object to every attention, overfed, overprotected and attending the best schools; and street children, deprived of everything. The object of this work is to describe the whole process that led to this situation: how did the birth-limitation policy cause those two categories of children to be created? How did it, at social level, contribute to favour only-children, thus excluding out-of-quota-born children? How did social liberalisation and political-administrative decentralisation lead to orphaning of the health and education systems, making access to those services very inegalitarian, including for children? Why is civil society not able to palliate the deficiencies of the welfare State? How did family react to those changes? Hoe did relationships with children evolve? We shall structure our talk while backing it up with statistic measurement (how many only children are there today? Can the number of disadvantaged children be estimated? How are family structures transforming? ). Then we shall attempt to measure the said inequalities (mortality, health, education, way of life, child’s statute within society, within family, etc.).

This document in different languages

Page translations: