RTR31T6E.jpg (Photo : Reuters)
Families in China with three foster children will have to let go of one of them starting December, according to China.org.
This is the new ruling in government regulations regarding families after economic capabilities of foster families were considered. Previously, Chinese families can take in up to three children for foster care, but the new regulations stipulate that a family can have only two.
The aim of the new rules is to ensure that foster children are afforded acceptable living conditions, according to Zhang Zhenyue, deputy director of the social welfare and charity division of the Department of Civil Affairs in east China's Anhui Province.
Zhang said that foster children are often taken by families who barely have the means to let them grow up in a financially stable household.
"Most youngsters are fostered by rural families, which often struggle to meet the basic financial requirements," Zhang said. "That means that a lot of children grow up in conditions that are far from ideal."
With the new rules effective starting December, some families and alternative homes will have to give up children they cannot afford to provide acceptable living conditions to.
The new rulings also include the stipulation that street children will now be eligible for fostering. Whereas the current rules, drafted in 2003, require that children could be fostered only if their family history could be completely documented; the new rules state that street children, who at times do not have full documentation, may now be fostered.
Zhang, however, sees hurdles for foster parents with this new ruling.
"Foster parents taking in street children will face a lot of new challenges, as often they have deep psychological problems because of the lives they have lived."
"They tend to be more sensitive and can appear unsociable and aloof, which will make it difficult for poster parents to communicate with them," Zhang added.
Currently, there are approximately 30,000 children living in foster homes across China, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
