Beijing, June 3 (IANS) Orphans and convicts' children in China will now receive at least 600 yuan ($88) each month as allowance till they turn 18 under a government scheme to ensure they are not left behind in the country's economic march.

Over 720,000 children across the country will benefit from the scheme, Wang Zhenyao, director of the department of social welfare under the ministry of civil affairs, was quoted as saying by the People's Daily.

At present welfare institutions are funded by local governments but the allowances are meagre - about 50-100 yuan per child each month.

'As China edges towards becoming the second largest economy with annual per capita GDP in major cities like Shanghai exceeding $4,000, it is time to spread the wealth among children,' Wang said at the launch of a report, 'Child Welfare in China', compiled by the ministry and Unicef.

Yin Yin Nwe, Unicef China representative, said there was leadership commitment to improve child welfare in China but said the country still faces a lot of challenges.

The issue of welfare of children living in poor rural families should also be raised as they are more susceptible to feel the impact from incidents like fake milk powder, problematic vaccines or chemical poisoning, she said.

Of the 320 million children under 18 years in the country, more than seven million live in poverty and about 100,000 are abandoned each year, most of them girls or disabled, she said citing official figures.

China is also in the top five worldwide in terms of child deaths each year, Unicef data says.

'Many are preventable, particularly in the countryside, with raised awareness and hospital childbirth,' she said.