Merely 11 days in operation, Jinan Orphanage, a government-run orpahanage that opened on June 1, was flocked with abandoned children, 106 children with infirmities, to be exact.

Thus, authorities were forced to implement new rules to try to regulate the number of children being left in the hatch.  The locals-only rule was soon followed by infants who are less than a year old.

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In conjunction to the orphanage workers and volunteers,  police also stand guard at the hatch 24 hours daily to ensure that children will not be abandoned anonymously.  

The hatch is a small, detached room at the side of the orphanage with heated incubators.The first hatch in China was opened in 2011. Now, there are 32 hatches scattered around the country.

According to Dr. Wang Zhenyao, one of the founders for China's Child Welfare Policy and the President of China Welfare Research Institute at Beijing Normal University, they had to find more humane way to take in abandoned children whose growing number was estimated at an alarming 10,000 annually.

Further, he believes that baby hatches were a step in the right direction for China. 

Although abandoning children is illegal in China, impoverished families resort to leaving their sick babies at the orphanage, and receive legal immunity doing it, because they lack the financial resources to shoulder the expensive costs of medical care. 

However, there is an ongoing debate as to the efficacy of these baby hatches. A number of critics protest  that the government is condoning child abandonment and even encouraging the practice by opening them while those who see the advantage believe that parents are offering their child a better and healthier life if they leave it at the orphanage.

The UN stands by its argument that baby hatches violate the Convention on the Rights of the Child which says that the state has a "duty to respect the child's right to maintain personal relations with his or her parent."

In conclusion, a comprehensive government sets of policies and services that will enable parents to take care of their own children should also be considered by the country.

Tagsbaby hatch, Jinan, abandoned children