as well as from the home. More and more Chinese mothers go out to work, and as a result large numbers of children under the age of six are left uncared for during the day time in tenement buildings, in resettlement estates, and in the streets. Non-profit-making day nurseries and play centres provided places for some 1,600 children under the age of six, but far more provision for day care is needed if the young children of working mothers are to be kept off the streets and given proper care in the early years of life. During the year, four new day nurseries were opened; one by the Salvation Army at Tai Hang Tung Resettlement Estate, one by the Western Women's Welfare Club, one by the Order of the Helpers of the Holy Souls, and the fourth by the Save the Children Fund at Wong Tai Sin. One new play centre was opened by the Helpers of the Holy Souls, a Roman Catholic Order, in Tai Wo Hau resettlement area near Tsuen Wan.
18. For children in need of care and protection the Director of Social Welfare has statutory responsibilities under the Protection of Women and Juveniles Ordinance, No. 1 of 1951. This law confers wide powers in cases where there is reason to suspect exploitation or ill- treatment, for the benefit of children of either sex under sixteen and females of any age. Many juveniles become the Director's wards, including all females adopted under Chinese customary procedure, which requires certain traditional formalities to be observed as between the natural and the adoptive parents. The majority of children are still adopted in this manner; in the case of boys the object is usually to perpetuate the family and they are generally well cared for, but there is a risk that girls may be adopted as a means of obtaining a cheap domestic servant. For this reason the 'customary' adoption of girls has by law to be registered with the Director of Social Welfare, who there- upon automatically becomes the legal guardian until the girl reaches the age of 21 or is married. It is the task of the Child Welfare Section of the Department to ensure, by visiting these girls as often as seems necessary in the homes of their adoptive parents, that they are not being exploited. In the case of boys adopted under this procedure, registration is voluntary. The number of wards and adopted children registered at the end of the year was 3,129. Apart from these categories, many other children require some degree of care or supervision, usually because their parents are temporarily or permanently unable, unwilling or unfit to look after them properly. Nearly 5,000 further children of various ages were in the care of the Department on this account at the end of the year (for details see Appendix 4).
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