China's 'lost generation' of children left to fend for themselves as economy booms

Video report by ITV News China correspondent Lucy Watson

In China's great race towards economic development, one huge group of people is getting left behind - the children.

More than 60 million of them are left by parents who head from the countryside to take jobs in cities far away.

Some are left with relatives, but many are left to fend for themselves.

In a damp room with little source of light, brothers Ping Ping and Woo Woo and their sister Wen Wen look after each other.

They keep pigs to pay for their school fees.

Their parents work 800 miles away in Shenzhen and only see them once a year.

Ping Ping told ITV News: "I miss my mum and dad, especially when I am being bullied."

"I know it is for a better future for us," he adds through the tears.

Their mother Su Fangcui said: "I worry about them, especially when it's cold. I miss them but we are just too poor to bring them with us."

Their father Huang Yuebo added: "I'd love to take care of them properly but no money is no future.

"I have no choice but to leave them behind. It breaks my heart."

ITV News spoke to one woman whose niece and three nephews died in June after drinking pesticide because they were left alone.

Their aunt Zhang Fangzhen said: "I could barely stand up when I heard the news."

This is the room where the children were found, derelict and with no sign of youngsters living there apart from a Disney rucksack.

Zhang's brother, father to the four children, was put in prison for four months before being released.

She says he was "paid to keep quiet" and she no longer knows where he is.

Families say the government is aware of the problem, but this could be a lost generation sacrificed for economic growth.