De Facto Orphans

China has 610,000 “de facto orphans,” according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which defines children in the category as having a living parent or parents who are unable or unwilling to raise them. The group, which has been increasingly marginalized, is in urgent need of assistance. The children are not eligible for government subsidies and cannot be adopted because their parents are alive. They’re not generally covered by China’s rural medical care schemes. The plight of these de facto orphans has gained the attention of local governments and social organizations which have introduced pilot programs to help them. But experts say the problem will not be solved by a single institution or by simply revising the Adoption Law, and will instead require combined efforts from government and society.