GUANGZHOU - Migrant women and children will be entitled to more public services in the coming decade in South China's Guangdong province, which has the largest transient population in the country.

An overall improvement in the public services for the migrants is a distinguishing goal in the provincial development plan for women and children for 2011 to 2020, compared with the previous plan and the national plan, said Lei Yulan, vice-governor of Guangdong.

The plan was approved by the provincial government in late December.

"As Guangdong is in a period of economic and social transition, we are facing great pressure in managing and serving the migrant population, with a diversity of women and children from different social groups," Lei said at news conference on Thursday.

The living and developmental concerns of children in difficult situations, such as migrant, left-behind and vagrant children, remain relatively prominent in Guangdong, according to the plan. Left-behind children are those left in their hometowns and villages by migrant worker parents.

The plan pledges that girls who are migrants, left-behind girls, disabled or from low-income families will receive compulsory education.

It also vows to safeguard the right of all migrant children to compulsory education.

Local governments in their communities will shoulder the responsibility and provide education at government-funded schools. Non-government schools will receive more support than previously.

Guidance will be provided to the guardians of migrant, left-behind and disabled children at schools that serve a large number of such children.

Services for migrant children will be upgraded, in communities with a large proportion of migrant families.

More psychological and social counseling will be made available for left-behind children. Efforts will be made to raise the awareness and sense of responsibility of their guardians. Social workers will visit their families to ensure their healthy development. Every school serving a large number of left-behind children will have a social worker. Volunteers will be grouped to provide social work services to such children.

Various sorts of parent-child days will be promoted to increase the time for communication between parents and children, especially migrant children.

The plan also pledges to safeguard the working rights and interests of migrant and left-behind women.

Guangdong authorities are striving to take a lead in offering equal public services for its entire population.

Migrants are often in a disadvantaged situation. Compulsory education is a major need of migrant children, and health services, such as premarital physical exams and pregnancy exams, are needed for migrant women, said Liu Mengqin, a researcher with the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences.

The pregnancy and post-partum death rate among migrant women and that of women in permanent residences will be indexed to assess the work of local governments, said Peng Wei, deputy director of the provincial health department.