Children, indicators of a nation's progress
By Rita A. Widiadana
JAKARTA (JP): The progress of nations is usually measured by their military or economic strength, or by the splendor of their capital cities and public buildings. There will be a day, however, when a country's prosperity will be measured by the well-being of its people and by the protection it provides for the growing minds and bodies of its children.
Despite the world's rapid economic progress, a large number of basic social and health problems still exists. Illiteracy, poverty, high mortality rates among pregnant women and children under five, child malnutrition, etc. continue to haunt many countries in the world at the close of the 20th century.
It will indeed take a long time to reach the day when prosperity is measured by the individual well-being, but the current trends indicate that countries around the globe are making their efforts to shorten this time.
A huge leap was made during the World Children Summit, in 1990, which came out with an important document, the Convention on Children Rights.
As of late February, l996, the Convention has been ratified by 187 out of 193 governments. When countries ratify this document, children rights become a state responsibility. These rights include economic rights such as the right to health care, nutrition and education.
Countries, which have ratified the Convention, are translating the principles of the Convention into their constitutions or passing new laws to conform with the Convention. In l994, Indonesia passed its new Education Bill which increased the length of compulsory education from six to nine years. The Philippines has taken measures to define and penalize child prostitution and trafficking.
The United Nation Children Fund (Unicef) records specific advance and regression in some key areas of human well-being and the overall future investment that countries made. Thus, in its annual report entitled The Progress of Nations l996, it monitors the practical effects of the Convention around the globe.
The Progress of Nations consists of essays, tables, charts and news stories that illustrate the progress made by different countries in the world.
The chapter on nutrition presents the research of three Unicef experts in child health and nutrition, all currently working in Asia.
Malnutrition
In a chapter on malnutrition, the three experts -- Vulimiri Ramalingaswami, Urban Jonsson, and Jon Rohde -- reveal that half of the world's malnourished children are to be found in just three countries - Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Unicef estimates that in developing countries around 200 million children are still malnourished, 30 percent of them do not complete their elementary schools and 20 percent do not have access to basic medical care.
The experts have discovered that malnutrition is not just caused by shortage of food, but runs deep into societal concepts.
The report shows that the first major reason for child malnutrition is poor care for women in patriarchal societies. In South Asia the tradition factor plays a particularly important part in the issue.
"Girls and women in South Asia seem to be generally less well cared for by their families, their partners and their societies," the report said.
"In patriarchal South Asian societies, demands made on the time and energies of women are visibly more excessive and unfair than in other regions of the world," it continued.
As a result, South Asian women are particularly undernourished during pregnancy which is damaging for the fetus. In Bangladesh, for example, half of the babies born are with low birth weight.
Besides tradition, the second major reason for child malnutrition is illness, caused by poor hygiene standards.
The report suggested that the first step towards improvement should include provision of better health, education and nutrition for women.
It also stressed the necessity to move the issue of malnutrition from the agenda on welfare to the agenda on rights.
Health
Health conditions of children in the developing world has also become a concern. In a chapter on health, Monica Sharma, Senior Adviser for Child Health at Unicef headquarters in New York, and James Tulloch, Director of the Division of Child Health and Development at WHO headquarters in Geneva, disclose depressing facts which they deem international shame.
As the 20th century draws to an end, over eight million children in poor countries are allowed to die each year from easily preventable diseases during childhood such as measles, diarrhea, malaria, pneumonia and malnutrition.
The writers complained that report on an earthquake that claims 1,000 victims, or a plane crash which kills 100 people, would often get a wide coverage from the world media. But the deaths of almost 25,000 children every day, caused by the above mentioned diseases, are hardly ever noticed.
The research also reveals that about half of all deaths among children are associated with malnutrition. "A child suffering from serious diarrhea may survive if he or she is well-fed," the research concludes.
The Progress of Nations also stresses the importance of educating boys and girls in poor countries. Unicef sees millions of poor girls in Asian and African countries withdrawn from schools because of poverty. Many forces combine to spell an early end to education for girls. The cost of books, uniforms and other expenses can make education burdensome for their families.
Unicef records various approaches that might encourage families to enroll their girls in schools. The common strands in the experiments to date are building schools or classrooms closer to local communities; involvement of communities and parents in particular in running the schools; training of female teachers; providing cash incentives for families who keep their daughters in school up to a specified grade, etc.
These attempts are urgently needed since education of girls is one of the best investments available in developing countries. It can increase their financial freedom and overall independence. It can also lead to better child health and nutrition and it also means latter marriage and lower birth rates, the report said.
Rich
The worsening situation of children around the world is not occurring only in poor countries. Millions of kids in developed countries like the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany and France face the risks of poverty.
A chapter on the industrialized world tries to take a look at child poverty in the developed countries. The steep rise in single parent families reflects major changes in the social and economic life in the industrialized world. Unicef records as a most obvious result of that phenomenon the rising number of mothers and children living in poverty.
In the United States, a child living in a single mother family is five times as likely to live below the national poverty standard. Separation and divorce are associated with poorer school performance, greater risk of teen pregnancy, higher rates of delinquency and worsening of mental health of both mothers and children.
From the number of white children born since l980 in the country, about 50 percent will spend some part of their childhood in a single parent family. For black children the proportion is about 80 percent.
A report from the World Health Organization says that same numbers of young males and females commit suicide in the industrialized nations. Japan and the West European Nations have relatively low rates of youth suicide, about 15 cases a year for every 100,000 youngsters. The highest rates -- more than 30 cases per 100,000 are found in Finland, New Zealand and the Russian Federation.
The report links suicide among young people to sexual and emotional abuse, stress, unplanned pregnancy, problems concerning sexual preference and escape from home.
Health behavior among children and youngsters in developed countries has been deteriorating. About 12 percent of the 15-year-olds smoke cigarettes everyday. Finland has the largest percent of them.
The new statistics also show a rise in the numbers of girls who smoke cigarettes. Among the 15-year-olds, now more girls than boys smoke in Canada, Denmark, Germany, Scotland, Spain and Sweden. The report also said that over the next 55 years, death caused by tobacco among young smokers will be triple the number of total deaths from murder, suicide, drug abuse, alcohol, traffic accidents and AIDS.
All these grim portrayals recorded in The Progress of Nations are disheartening. All goals and endeavors to improve the world's children are still less than half completed. Support from international agencies and governments is urgently required. No less important is increasing the level of political commitment in all countries in order to prepare our children for entering the 21th century.