Lankao aftermath

The fire that left seven dead and one severely injured in a private orphanage in Lankao this month aroused public anger over the fact that many orphans live in hazardous situations due to insufficient government support.

Media accused the local government of Lankao of spending 20 million yuan ($3.2 million) on building a center for its finance bureau while local officials complained about funding difficulties to set up a public welfare home for orphans and abandoned children.

Wu Changsheng, deputy head of the county, admitted that the local government failed to attach great importance to satisfying vulnerable children's needs, in a program on China Central Television on Sunday.

The construction of a public welfare house for children had been listed on the local government's agenda before the blaze and the central government had approved 900,000 yuan for the project last year, said Dong Hui, Henan province's civil affairs official.

The Lankao government vowed to put the house into service in August.

"Although the government is improving its work for children, our debt is too high," Dong said. "Our public services have fallen behind children's needs."

Nationwide, county-level child welfare homes have yet to be established.

Statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed that only 64 out of 2,853 counties in the country have child welfare homes. The ministry pledged to help 500 counties to build childcare homes by the end of 2015.