Violence against disabled children in China

In late June, a body of a 9-year girl was found in a river in Nanjing, China. She was wearing thick clothes and carrying a bag that had two heavy bricks in it. She was clearly murdered, but by whom? After a month, the police found that that she had cerebral palsy, and she was killed by her father and grandfather. On Chinese social media platforms, while many people expressed sympathy towards the little girl, there were also many people claiming that it was a right decision of her families so that everyone's life could be made better. The news and public reactions sparked anger and frustration within disability community. How come a disabled child's right to life does not deserve the same respect? Meanwhile, what is deeply sad is that the story is one of those many stories, almost as 'normal' as what can be expected, about disabled children being subject to all possible forms of violence that put their lives and dignity at risk in China.

As what the little girl encountered within her family, disabled children in China can be seen as burdens, especially given the lack of public service and welfare support in the country. Traditional beliefs also can bring stigma and shame to a family, as having a disabled child can be seen as punishment due to karma. Families may choose to 'hide' disabled children from public space - some even avoid sending these children to schools. It is worthy to note that although 9-year compulsory education is implemented in China, according to which parents/guardians have legal obligations to provide primary and junior secondary education for children, one of the allowed practice models regarding disabled children is 'delivering teaching at home'. The latest policy change also seems to be encouraging the registering of this form of education. The model is supposed to operate on the basis that there will be special education teachers visiting children at home to provide teaching, and it is seen to be suitable for those homebound children who often have to rely on daily medical care that is not easily available in a school environment. Nevertheless, the reality of the model's implementation remains rather unclear. Does this model actually may meanwhile legitimise the hiding of disabled children? It is also shared knowledge that there are simply not enough teachers available to have frequent home visits. However, it appears that this model is favoured by policy-makers and LEAs because once registered, on paper, a disabled child is 'provided' with compulsory education, and increasing the coverage rate for disabled children is a policy priority at the moment.

Disabled children can also face violence from families under the name of 'intervention'. Some families might have good intentions, however, using inappropriate strategies can be largely due to a lack of awareness and knowledge of what can be done at home to support a child. Many of these can also happen because of the idea of 'normalising' a child through meaningless behavioural training.

Abandonment is another issue in China. The selection of a healthier baby (also boys are preferred to girls) has been happening when the country implemented one-child policy (now it is two-child policy). Disabled children alongside girls have been the main victims, who fill in places in orphanages. Some could have been killed right after birth. The current trend that turns special schools into boarding institutions, according to special education teachers, may worsen the situation – ‘Parents simply stop visiting their children as if they are orphans’.

Disabled children can be subject to many forms of violence in educational institutions. While being bullied and hurt by peers happens frequently, sometimes, the violence can also be initiated by teachers and other adults. Although national policy stipulates the forbidden of bullying behaviours, it is seen though as a norm in practitioners’ eyes that if a child is different, then naturally s/he might be bullied by others. There is no data that can tell us whether violence happens more in special schools or mainstream schools in China. In these years, more and more institutions have been exposed for their maltreatments towards disabled children and children even died in some extreme cases. These institutions, many with no qualified professionals, carry out inhumane interventions in order to ‘cure’ disabled children. Parents again may lack sufficient knowledge to judge the quality of programmes, and some may be desperate to have any kind of treatments for their children. The ‘market’ of disability intervention continues to grow fast and stronger in China. Without an effective monitoring and safeguarding system, this may bring more risks to disabled children’s wellbeing.

Furthermore, among ‘left behind’ children in China, it is unclear how many of them live with disabilities and what kind of care and protection they are provided with. Sexual violence also happens, for example, families put disabled girls through forced marriage in return of incentives, which seems to be a norm in rural China. Cyber-bullying towards disabled children is also an area that has been less addressed in the country.

It is recognised by many that even if we know that violence against disabled children happens on a daily basis, it is notoriously difficult to gather data to evident the need of state-level intervention. Not to mention how unlikely it is to gain access to institutions, often families may choose to stay in silence worrying about revenge from institutions or professionals towards their children. Meanwhile, it is also difficult to hear children themselves, when parents often act as the gatekeepers especially for children with learning disabilities – indeed parents can thus get away from being exposed of their own violent behaviours. This type of work may also be discouraged or interfered by the government for the likelihood of challenging its accountability over child protection. However, small-scale data can be gathered through parents, grassroots communities, disabled adults and qualitative studies. We need to continue to require the development of a monitoring system of violence against children in China, which must include disability indicators.

Some useful articles:

Chan, EKL., Emery, CR. and Ip, P. (2016) Children with disability are more at risk of violence victimization: evidence from a study of school-aged Chinese children. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 31(6): 1026-1046. https://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/200773/1/content.pdf

Jiang, Y., Chen, J., Yu, B. and Jin, Y. (2017) Physical violence against children with hearing loss by parents: A pilot study in Beijing, China.Child Abuse & Neglect, 72: 258-265. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28863394

UNICEF. 2013. The state of the world’s children: children with disabilities. https://www.unicef.org/sowc2013/

Yu, B., Chen, J., Jin, Y., Zhang, W., Feng, Y. and Zhao, X. (2016) The knowledge and skills related to sexual abuse prevention among Chinese children with hearing loss in Beijing. Disability and Health Journal, 10: 344-349.