Making 'left-behind children' count

The government is carrying out the first survey of minors in the rural areas with the aim of ensuring they are safe and have access to education, as Luo Wangshu reports from Huarong, Hunan province.

Late last year, Fan Juxiang made a life-changing decision. The 27-year-old migrant worker quit her job in Zhejiang province in East China, and made the 1,100-km journey home to Huarong, a village in the central province of Hunan, where she had left her 3-year-old son to be raised by his grandparents.

Before that, Fan's life had been uneventful, and she was almost a stereotypical woman from China's rural areas. Fan was raised as a "left-behind child", completed a basic education, left the countryside to live in a city as a migrant worker, returned home to get married, had a child and then left home again.