Mainland authorities have vowed to join forces to help millions of rural children left behind by parents who moved to cities to find work.
Li Quanmao, of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, told an All-China Women's Federation conference on rural children that departments at all levels had to provide 'left-behind' children with a basic standard of living and help them cover medical expenses, Xinhua reported.
The news agency said the government's focus was to ensure children without parental care had access to social welfare.
More than 20 million children are estimated to have been left behind by parents to live with their grandparents or fend for themselves.
'By the end of last year, there were around 104,000 homeless children on the mainland,' Mr Li said, quoting data based on the number of children asking government agencies for help.
'It means the actual number of waifs is far beyond this figure, since a lot of homeless children refuse our help,' he said.
