A national committee for the protection of minors is necessary to better protect children's rights and interests, a political adviser said yesterday, with millions of rural children being left behind by parents seeking city jobs.

Erkenjiang Tulahong, secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China and vice president of the All-China Youth Federation, made the suggestion to the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The number of "left-behind" rural Chinese children is about 58 million, accounting for 21.72 percent of rural children aged 17 or less, according to a report by the All-China Women's Federation.

Tulahong said there were almost one million homeless minors in Chinese cities, and four million minors indulged themselves in Internet games, and the juvenile delinquency rate kept rising.

He said a national agency was needed to coordinate departments to work out an effective framework to better protect juvenile rights and interests as well as carrying out inspections on the work of local committees.