BEIJING — China has established a system for caring for and protecting left-behind children in rural areas since the 18th Communist Party of China National Congress in 2012.

The governments secured guardianship for 780,000 previously unsupervised left-behind children in rural areas between 2013 and 2018, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Left-behind children are those whose parents have become migrant workers in towns or cities, leaving their children either unsupervised or in the care of relatives or neighbors.

Meanwhile, local governments helped more than 180,000 rural left-behind children without household registration get registered, and more than 18,000 drop-outs returned to school.

China also launched a program to provide disabled orphans with accessible healthcare. It has offered free surgeries and rehabilitation to 122,000 disabled orphans.