Tethered between a tree and a metal railing, 12-year-old Li Luqin is subjected to treatment more appropriate for a dog than a child.
Yet her father insists she must be tied up every day to stop her harming herself, reports Daily Mail, London.
Twins Li Luqin and Li Shuangqin sit slumped after being tied up by their father Li Wancheng in Yunnan Province
Her twin sister is similarly bound because of what the family call ‘mental problems'.
Li Wancheng began binding Li Luqin and Li Shuangqin ten years ago for fear they would hurt themselves.
Sometimes they are tied together. Passers-by often react angrily as they watch the young girls trapped in their confines, with the ropes cutting into their wrists as they try to wriggle free.
Li Wancheng admits that he has tied up his daughters every day for the past ten years
The family currently lives along the roadside in China's Yunnan Province. The father is trying to save enough money to get medical treatment for the girls.
He is adamant his daughters are not safe to be allowed to roam and the pair have to make do with a life that involves being tied to a fence or a tree – or to each other – every day.
‘When they were two they were found to be not normal,' says Wancheng. He hopes they can be ‘cured' once he pays for them to be seen by a doctor, but says: ‘We only have 1000 Yuan (£100) of savings. We don't have extra.'
The image recalls that of a two-year-old boy pictured earlier this year chained to a lamp post to stop him getting away while his mother and father went to work in Beijing.
