Welfare centre in Guangzhou says project allowing parents to leave babies anonymously has nearly doubled its workload

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has suspended a "baby hatch" programme that allowed parents to abandon infants safely and anonymously, because a local welfare centre could not cope with the number of arrivals.

A baby hatch – or "baby safety island" in Mandarin – allows a parent to leave his or her unwanted child in a temperature-controlled room equipped with a cradle and incubator. The drop-off triggers an alarm and, minutes later, a welfare worker picks up the infant, allowing the parent to remain anonymous.

Abandoning a baby is illegal in China yet some impoverished families, lacking the resources to cover high medical costs for a disabled or sick child, feel that they have no other option.

Xu Jiu, the director of the Guangzhou Child Welfare Centre, said it had taken in 262 children since it opened on 28 January. All the babies – 67% of whom were less than a year old – had varying degrees of illness. More than 90% survived.

The influx of children has nearly doubled the centre's workload, Xu said, preventing it from offering every baby appropriate care. The centre, which has 1,000 beds, is currently sheltering 1,100 children.

Xu warned parents not to leave their children at the baby hatch after its closure, adding that it will only accept abandoned babies that are brought in by police.

The China Centre for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA) says that China has 25 baby hatches across 10 provinces and big cities. Last July, the ministry of civil affairs announced that the scheme would expand to another 18 provinces and big cities by the end of 2015. Beijing will open its first baby hatch within the year.

The country's first baby hatch opened nearly three years ago in Shijiazhuang, the industrial capital of the northern province Hebei. It has so far received 181 children.

"The number of abandoned infants we received far exceeded the number that were received by other cities' pilot programmes in the same time period," Xu said.

Guangzhou's baby hatch received 80 infants during this year's two-week-long lunar new year holiday, provoking criticisms that the scheme was encouraging parents to abandon their children.

Li Bo, the head of the CCCWA, has argued that there is no evidence linking baby hatches to a rise in the number of abandonments. "Laws emphasise prevention, while baby hatches focus on rescue after the laws are broken," he told the Xinhua news agency.