Cai Jiaxi, four, helps his mother to put on a leg support, in Chengdu, April 22, 2012. His father goes out during the day to do laboring work, leaving him to take care of his arthritis-stricken mother. [Photo/CFP]

Silver lining

However, their plight has now come to the attention of social organizations and government agencies. In a notice released in September 2011, the Ministry of Civil Affairs defined children with one or two parents alive but unwilling or unable to raise them as "de facto unattended children".

The Shaanxi Women and Children Development Foundation introduced a scheme to help the group, under which a total of 688,300 yuan has been given to 604 disadvantaged children in the province.

In 2015, the foundation plans to expand the scheme to 10 poverty-stricken counties in Shaanxi to assist 1,005 children there.

The foundation also teamed up with other organizations to launch online donation programs and more than 2.24 million yuan has been raised from 160,000 donors.

However, the ultimate aim is to bring these children under the nation's assistance program.

At the end of 2014, the civil affairs department of Shaanxi launched a pilot program in Xianyang to care for the de facto orphans and other poverty-stricken children. They are given a subsidy of at least 300 yuan every month.