Our neglected children

In 2005, UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) called on the world to “recommit to its moral and legal responsibilities to children.”

The 2005 State of the World’s Children (SOWC) Report entitled Children Under Threat noted that out of 2.2 billion children then, 1billion were “robbed of their childhood, living in poverty, in countries in conflict, in communities besieged by HIV/AIDS.”

There were 640 million children in developing countries without adequate shelter, which translated to 1 in 3 children. One in 5 or 400 million children with no access to safe water and 1 in 7 (or 270 million children) with no access to health services.

More than 121 million primary school-age children, majority of them girls, were out of school. There were 10.6 million children in 2003 who died before they were 5 years old. DAILY, there were 29,158 children who died before their 5th birthday, 3,900 of them died due to lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. About 2.2 million children could have been saved yearly through routine immunization!

UNICEF recently released their 2012 SOWC report focusing on Children in an Urban World.  More than a billion children now live in cities and towns and are expected to increase in number in a world that is increasingly urbanizing - 7 out of 10 are expected to live in cities and towns by 2050.

Mr. Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director, notes that “hundreds of millions of children today live in urban slums, many without access to basic services” and that “we must do more to reach all children in need, wherever they are excluded and left behind.” Some might ask whether we can afford to do this, especially at a time of austerity. But if we overcome the barriers that have kept these children from the services that they need and that are theirs by right, then millions more will grow up healthy, attend school, and live more productive lives. CAN WE AFFORD NOT TO DO THIS? (underscoring ours).

Contrary to the ordinary perception that children in urban areas may have more access to educational, medical and recreational facilities, the 2012 report notes that there are too many of the children who have no access to basic essentials- clean water, electricity, health care. They are also forced to do dangerous and exploitative work rather than attend school. They are also under the constant threat of eviction living in “dwellings and overcrowded settlements highly vulnerable to disease and disaster.”

The 2012 UNICEF report correctly stated that “Children play no part in creating social hierarchies, classes or castes. They are born into deeply unequal societies and live out their lives hampered (or, in the case of a privileged few, aided) by collective perceptions, conventions and stereotypes.”

The 2012 report further noted that “Discrimination, income poverty, direct and indirect costs, poor transportation and lack of official documents are among the factors precluding access to available urban services. Coverage can be enhanced through more equitable policies, such as abolishing user fees, setting up community partnerships and enhancing the promotion and use of services. Innovative efforts including conditional cash transfers have proved successful in a number of Latin American and African countries. Identifying the bottlenecks specific to each urban setting helps target interventions to promote equity.”

UNICEF presented 5 key recommendations for urgent action - “not goals but means to an end: fairer, more nurturing cities and societies for all people – starting with children” including “1) Better understand the scale and nature of poverty and exclusion affecting children in urban areas, 2) Identify and remove the barriers to inclusion, 3) Ensure that urban planning, infrastructure development, service delivery and broader efforts to reduce poverty and inequality meet the particular needs and priorities of children, 4)  Promote partnership between all levels of government and the urban poor – especially children and young people, and, 5) Pool the resources and energies of international, national, municipal and community actors in support of efforts to ensure that marginalized and impoverished children enjoy their full rights.”

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