Child Development Outline of China (2011-2020)

The outline emphasizes that childhood is a critical period of a person’s life. Providing children with necessary opportunities and conditions for their survival, development, safety, and participation, while fulfilling their needs for development and harnessing their potential, lays an important foundation for their lifelong development.

The outline is formulated in accordance with the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Minors and other relevant laws, and adopts the purpose of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, in accordance with the overall goals and requirements of our country’s economic and social development and with regard for the actual situations of children’s development in China.

The main points of the outline are listed below:

Basic principles:　　

1.Principle of legal protection. In the whole process of children’s physical and mental development, children’s legal rights should be guaranteed in accordance with the law, and children’s healthy growth should be promoted.

2. Principle of first call for children. Children’s interests and needs should be given priority in legislation and policy planning and allocation of public resource.

3. Principle of the best interests of children. We should ensure the maximum benefits of children when dealing with specific issues related to children taking into account their physical and mental development and interests.

4. Principle of equal development of children. We should create a fair social environment to ensure that children are not discriminated based on their household registration, region, gender, nationality, religion，education levels, physical conditions or family wealth. All children should have equal rights and opportunities.

5. Principle of participation rights of children. We should encourage and support children to participate in family, cultural and social life, create a social environment conducive to their participation, open up channels for the expression of children’s views, and value and adopt their opinions.

General goals:

We should upgrade the basic medical and health system for urban and rural children to improve their physical and mental health; promote the equalization of basic public education services, and ensure that children enjoy higher quality education; expand the scope of children’s welfare; establish and improve children’s welfare with moderate universal preference; improve the social service level for children to create a child-friendly social environment; improve the legal system and protection mechanism for protecting children; and protect children’s legitimate interests according to the law. Field of development and main goals:

Children and health

Main goals:　
1. We should gradually decrease the occurrence of birth defects with severe multiple disabilities, and reduce disabilities resulting from birth defects.

2. We should lower the mortality rates for infants and children less than 5 years old to below 10 and 13 per thousand respectively, with particular attention to those groups of children in the migrant population.

3. We should reduce child injuries resulting in death and disability. The mortality rate for injuries among children under 18 must drop by one sixth from the rate of 2010.

4. We should control common diseases of children and major infectious diseases such as AIDS, syphilis, tuberculosis, and hepatitis B.

5. The vaccination rate in rural areas included in the national immunization program should be over 95 percent.

6. We should reduce the incidence of neonatal tetanus to less than 1 per thousand in counties.

7. We should control the incidence of underweight children at birth below 4 percent.

8. Exclusive breastfeeding rate of babies aged 0 to 6 months will reach 50 percent and above.

9. We should control the prevalence of anemia in children under 5 years old to below 12 percent, and decrease the prevalence of anemia among primary and secondary school students by one third compared to the number in 2010.

10. We should control the rate of growth retardation in children under five years old below 7 percent, and lower the proportion of children of that age who are underweight rate to less than 5 percent.

11. We should improve the achievement rate of national student physical fitness and health standard, and control the incidence of poor vision, dental cavities, overweight or obesity and malnutrition in primary and secondary school students.

12. We should reduce the incidence of children’s psychological and behavioral problems, and the prevalence of mental disease.

13. We should increase sexual and reproductive health knowledge among school-age children.

14. We should reduce the harm to children by environmental pollution.