Early morning joggers this morning discovered a one-month-old baby girl in a park. The joggers called the police and the baby has since been taken to the Nanjing Children’s Welfare Institute. Left on a park bench in Yuhuatai district, she was wrapped in a blanket and left with ¥300 cash and two bags of milk powder. Nothing was left with the baby that could help police to identify her parents.
Each year it is reported that babies, mainly girls, are abandoned by their parents. While abandoning babies is a problem in many countries, China’s large population sees the majority of those being abandoned each year.
“Left-over” children and abandoned girls are the biggest problems that we see in modern China. Migrant workers who came to the big cities in order to earn money to send home to their families may simply never return, their children are now left either fending for themselves or are in the care of aging grandparents. Girls are abandoned due to an ancient Chinese tradition that insists a baby boy is inferior.
While China last year all but abandoned the one-child policy, in reality this newfound freedom only applies to city dwellers; those living in rural areas are still subject to the rule.
