Give 'grand-parenting' elders their due

Due to the drastic social changes brought about by urbanization and the emergence of nuclear families, an increasing number of senior citizens have to migrate to major cities far from their hometown to take care of their grandchildren. In fact, theirs is a new migration phenomenon in China.

Since the launch of reform and opening-up, and the resultant rapid economic development, many Chinese have migrated from rural areas or towns to major cities for work. And since many of these people have no other family member except a working spouse, their parents have to take care of their children. This is a case of one migration followed by another (rather forced) migration.

According to National Health and Family Planning Commission's statistics, China has about 18 million migrant senior citizens, or 7.2 percent of the overall migrant population of 247 million. And 43 percent of these elderly people migrated to the cities to take care of their grandchildren.