ABSTRACT
China currently has 220 million children aged fourteen or under. Of these, 57.4 percent are in rural areas. 1 Despite the fact that child development is directly related to China’s future economic and social progress, a huge gap exists between rural and urban children in terms of their health and education. This chapter explores the significance of putting ‘human capital investments’ into child development. It focuses on early childhood development, student nutrition in rural areas, challenges facing children in rural areas, and on exploratory pilot projects and ways to find solutions.
