POPULAR ECONOMICS: POVERTY, THE INNOCENT'S SILENT OPPRESSOR
MANILA, NOVEMBER 4, 2010 (BUSINESS WORLD RESEARCH) by K. J. Q. Ang Posted October 22, 2010 (The BusinessWorld Research team aims to educate its readers by introducing economic and finance concepts through its series of Popular Economics and the BusinessWorld Guide to Series. The Research Team: Maria Eloisa I. Calderon - Research Head, Daniel Anne B. Nepomuceno-Rodriguez - Senior Researcher: http://bworldonline.com/assets/contactus.php)
(Photos courtesy of Flickr Hive Mind) DIRECTING and creating a defined path for the future begins with the formation and education of the youth. Poverty, however, hinders the holistic formation of the youth. Especially in developing countries where a lot of people subsist on less than a dollar per day, children living in poverty are denied of the basic necessities needed to live a decent life.
Alleviating poverty starts with the investment on basic social services for children, according to a 2003 study entitled "Child Poverty in the Developing World."
"Poverty denies children their fundamental human rights. Severe or extreme poverty can cause children permanent damage – both physically and mentally – stunt and distort their development and destroy opportunities of fulfilment, including the roles they are expected to play successively as they get older in family, community and society," it read.
Extreme poverty is defined as the state of a person living on less than a dollar a day. Child poverty, on the other hand, is the state of a child living in poverty and deprived of social, physical and mental resources and services that leave them unable to enjoy their rights and reach their full potentials.
Deprivation
Severe shelter and severe sanitation deprivation were respectively the most prevalent problems faced by poor children in developing countries, according to the study. This means that a large portion of poor children ages 3 to 18 are living with five people per room and without access to sanitation amenities.
Information deprivation or the lack of access to television, radio, telephone or newspaper was the third largest deprivation among the poor children. Water deprivation or access to unsafe water, food deprivation, health deprivation and education deprivation or no access to formal education completed the list of severe deprivation.
Last year, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) discussed the effect of poverty on Filipino children in a policy note titled "Child Poverty in the Philippines: More Children Suffer as Poverty Rises."
"With increased income poverty, children immediately suffer the consequences in terms of nutritional and health conditions as well as schooling," PIDS said.
National Statistical Coordination Board's (NSCB) latest poverty statistics (2006) show that about one-third or 32.9% of the country's 87 million-strong population are considered poor. Coming from a 30% poverty rate in 2003, this means that an additional four million people were counted as poor in 2006.
With the increasing number of poor families, the PIDS explained that a child is affected in terms of the nutritional, health and educational provision since the family's resources become depleted.
Out-of-school and malnourished
Poverty's impact on child education is reflected in the increase in number of out-of-school youth, the PIDS noted, citing government statistics that should the ranks of children aged 6 to 16 who are out of school increased by 22.2% to 2.2 million in 2007 from 1.8 million in 2002.
Children's nutritional condition worsened in recent years, it noted. Result of the 2008 National Nutrition Survey showed that one out of four five-year old children was both underweight and under height. The number of short and underweight children aged six to 10 years old rose by 33.1% and 25.6%, respectively, in 2008, higher than the 32% increase in stunted children and 22.8% increase in underweight children in 2005. The data reflected the government's failure to sustain nutrition programs for kids.
Homeless
More children were also suffering from shelter deprivation or dwellings with inadequate roof and wall since 2000. Although the percentage decreased to 1.1% in 2006 from 3.4% in 1985, the size of the poor actually increased. Children living in informal settlements significantly increased to 1.2 million in 2006 from 445,000 in 1985 due to migration from rural to urban places.
In terms of access to safe water, 2006 data showed that 11.6% children get water from springs, rivers, streams, rain and peddlers – considered unsafe by global standards; still, their population was lower by almost 300,000 from 2000.
In terms of sanitation facilities, about 3.4 million children do not have access to toilet facilities. This figure is higher than the 2000 estimate and lower than the 2003 estimate.
In terms of access to electricity, the number of children with access to electricity improved to 6.4 million in 2006 from 10 million children in 1985.
Given the results, the PIDS called for the implementation of more development strategies that would boost the well-being of the poor in general and children in particular.
Also, attacking poverty must be addressed depending on "spatial disparities," it said. This means that poverty is different on every area since regional needs differ significantly. For example, the NCR is more shelter-deprived while the ARMM is deprived in terms of income, sanitation and water.
The trends reflected by statistical measures also indicate the difficulty of sustaining improvements. Thus, government programs should prioritize the most poor and most deprived areas.—K. J. Q. Ang
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