China battles with abandoned baby crisis

A new-born baby has been rescued from a university toilet in the city of Linyi, north-western China. The baby girl was believed to be flushed down the toilet by a student mother in a bid to cover up the pregnancy. However, the baby got stuck in a pipe and her screams attracted some students, who immediately called firemen to rescue the infant. The incident followed a similar episode in May 2014, in which another baby was rescued from a toilet pipe.

Children were being thrown into trash cans, on the side of roads, in front of hospitals… so we had to standardise it and regulate it. We had to find a more humane way to take in abandoned babies.

Dr. Wang Zhenyao, one of the founders of China’s child welfare policy

Child abandonment is a widespread problem in China. In March 2014, authorities were forced to close a baby hatch (a place where parents can abandon unwanted new-born infants) in Guangzhou, capital of Guandong. Since it had opened on 28 January 2014, the baby hatch received 262 abandoned babies. The Jinan Orphanage in eastern China received 106 children in just 11 days, since its opening on 1 June. UNICEF said there were around 712,000 orphans in China in 2010 but child welfare groups believed the number could be much bigger.

Asia-Pacific baby toilet