The Vietnamese government has drafted a five-year plan to inject US$90 million in funding additional protections for children.

The plan aims to close the widening rich and poor gap among children and implement an effective system to protect their health and safety.

The plan was designed by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, to rectify the country’s failing campaigns against abuse, trafficking, prostitution, early marriage, drug addiction, HIV infection and youth crime.

The proposed injection of funds will seek to create an effective safety net for children in at least half of the country’s 63 cities and provinces and focuses on children under the age of 16.

The plan’s target demographic is poor, urban child migrants and ethnic minorities.

Under the plan, the government will seek to step up training for local officials and social welfare workers in relevant fields. A propaganda campaign about child welfare issues will be launched and a new database will be established to monitor and evaluate the scope of the problem.

A significant number of children fall between the systemic cracks every year according to the plan’s authors. In 2009, Vietnam announced that 1.53 million of its children were disadvantaged, which is 6 percent of the country’s total child population.