Police across the country have rushed to the streets and joined the campaign to crack down on child begging.

Police in Guangdong province investigated 368 possible child abduction cases from Feb 1 to 10. But they found that none of the children had been abducted. All 135 children police found begging or performing on local streets were actually brought to Guangdong by their own parents, other guardians or relatives.

After police reprimanded their parents, the children either went home with their parents or were taken to local child-rescue centers.

Statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs show that the country's rescue centers have received an annual average of 140,000 homeless juveniles over the past five years.

Normally, civil affairs authorities or public security departments will try to contact their parents so the homeless children can be returned home. Those who are orphans or have lost contact with their parents will be sent to child welfare homes or orphanages.

For Ma Li, who has been helping homeless children for 15 years, the current intervention of simply sending them back home is problematic.

"Some children run away again after they are sent back because the government fails to solve their problems at home," said Ma Li, a homeless child rescue center director in Xuzhou, East China's Jiangsu province.

Domestic violence, bad parent-child relationships, poverty and many other reasons force a child to leave home and beg on the streets, Ma said.

"We cannot afford follow-up visits to all children we have sent back, and it is very difficult to know how they live just by our telephone surveys," Ma added.

Ma said more professional social workers were urgently needed to help those children stay at home, Ma said.