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REPORTS: LATIN AMERICA |
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Thursday
13 November
2003
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Latin
America: The Poorest Poor
Armando Chávez
Children and adolescents, the main victims of poverty and indigence which this year appear to be growing in the region.
They pass a hat among passengers in search of coins after singing, dancing or narrating, to looks of indifference, the hardships of their home. Martin, Gabriela and Omar are no more than 10 years old. Dressed in rags, their faces filthy and with the gruff voices of those who have lacked a childhood, they walk through the trains that link Buenos Aires to areas in the south.
Looking distrustful, they react suspiciously if one tries to ask about their parents or older siblings. They show a hardness and fear that reveals more suffering than their words could express.
These three siblings reflect what millions of children in the region suffer daily. Nearly 60 percent of the 193 million children and adolescents in the region are poor, exposed to precarious workplaces and situations of risk in the streets and even at home, without affection, welfare or protection.
In spite of the economic growth over much of the last decade, Latin America and the Caribbean continues to be the most unequal region of the world. Some 20 percent of the population owns 60 percent of the wealth and the poorest 40 percent has just 10 percent. This explains the inability of wide sectors of the population to satisfy their basic needs and the lack of public resources for social investment, according to the Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
All of the countries of the region have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and many have adjusted their national legislation to these principles. These changes profoundly influence public policies and promote reforms, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Now, fewer children die prematurely and they have better possibilities of living in homes with access to basic services and getting an education, according to UNICEF (LP, Dec. 17, 2001).
But the challenges that remain are alarming. Stunted growth affects 20 percent of the children in Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and rural zones of Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru.
More than 400,000 children die from dehydration, respiratory infections, severe malnutrition or lack of running water and sanitation before reaching the age of five, UNICEF reports. Of the children under five who survive, 7.9% are malnourished.
ECLAC says that chronic malnutrition is the most frequent manifestation of hunger and extreme poverty in the majority of children of these countries, affecting the physical or psychomotor development phase with moderate or serious deficiency in size with respect to age, or stunted growth. The millennium began with 55 million people malnourished in Latin America and the Caribbean.
"Malnutrition is the result of a failure of society," said María del Carmen Morasso, a UNICEF consultant.
With regards to education, the biggest challenges are increasing access, improving quality and reducing desertion.
The level of access to primary school is above 90 percent, but the inequalities regarding the quality of teaching, according to socioeconomic differences, sex differences, ethnic origin and place of residence are significant. The consequences are low retention capacity, high repetition rates and desertion.
Labor exploitation, prostitution and violence also plague the poorest sectors of the child population. According to the International Labor Organization, child labor is concentrated mostly in informal urban sector (street sellers, shoe shiners, among others), agricultural activities and domestic labor.
Some 20 million of working minors between 5 and 14 years are forced into early maturity, exposed to crime, sexual abuses and earn less than adults, lack contracts, benefits and protection against high-risk tasks.
According to ECLAC, minors who work have some two years less schooling than those who do not work, fail in school due to fatigue and often abandon the classroom. Later, in adult life, they enter the workforce at a disadvantage and are among the least productive workers. On average, their salaries are 20 percent lower than the rest of the work force (LP, June 3, 2002).
Brazil, Paraguay, Colombia and the Dominican Republic have the highest rates of children in the sex trade, including sexual tourism and urban prostitution.
The threat of violence against minors in the home, street and work world is another component of this scenario. In the region, 40 percent of adolescent deaths are caused mainly by violent acts (accidents, homicides and suicides). For every one that dies by accidents or violence,15 are wounded as a direct result and another 30 or 40 require medical and psychological treatment.
Argentine psychologist Horacio Gandelman agrees that poverty increases in homes headed by women. "Poverty strikes mostly women and children," he said. "The majority of indigent homes are headed by women."
Gandelman is convinced that it is vital to strengthen family income, monitor members of families in extreme poverty, increase the presence of family courts and demand that governments fulfill the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Population Malnourished 1998 - 2000 (%)
Country: %
Haiti: 50
Nicaragua:
29
Dominican Republic.:
26
Guatemala:
25
Bolivia:
23
Venezuela:
21
Honduras:
21
Panama:
18
Paraguay:
14
Guyana:
14
El Salvador:
14
Cuba:
13
Colombia:
13
Trinidad & Tobago:
12
Suriname:
11
Peru:
11
Brazil:
10
Jamaica:
9
Mexico:
5
Ecuador:
5
Costa Rica:
5
Chile:
4
Uruguay:
3
Argentina:
2
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