Many East Asian, Pacific states fail their children, Unicef says
Many East Asian, Pacific states fail their children, Unicef says
Agence France-Presse, Jakarta
Too many countries in East Asia and the Pacific continue to fail
their children despite dramatic economic growth in parts of the
region, the United Nations children's fund Unicef said on Monday.
The issue "is less one of finance than of effort and
commitment," Unicef's regional office said in a report released
at the start of a conference in Bali on children.
Economic growth had helped reduce poverty in the region but
many millions still existed precariously, Unicef said.
The vast majority also lived free from war. But a mass
movement from the land to the cities "is having a deeply
disruptive effect on social structures".
China had around 80 million rural migrants living unofficially
in cities, including five million children -- and a total of
around 150,000 street children.
Traditional family- or village-based welfare systems had been
disrupted.
The weakening of families, due to the recent economic downturn
and youth migration to cities, also exposed young people to new
dangers including drug abuse and sexual exploitation.
Myanmar's methamphetamine industry had created an enormous
increase in use by young people.
The number of malnourished children aged under five had fallen
from 24 percent to 17 percent between 1990-2000 but improvements
in China skewed the picture.
Excluding China, an average 28 percent of children in the
region were underweight -- almost as high as sub-Saharan Africa.
UNHCR said poverty was only one factor and it was important to
educate mothers to give children proper nutrition -- especially
breastfeeding rather than bottle-feeding for the first six
months.
Mothers should be well-nourished and have access to basic
health services.
Because efforts to combat malnutrition had been limited,
"millions of children throughout the region continue to die each
year and millions more will never have been allowed to reach
their full potential."
Education had been one of the region's great successes.
East Asia/Pacific had also made good progress reducing the
number of children under five who die, thanks to immunization and
proper treatment of diarrhea. But there were considerable
differences within countries.
The highest death rate was in Cambodia with 138 deaths per
1,000 live births -- a higher figure than in 1990.
Many states had made little progress since 1990 in reducing
the maternal mortality rate, partly because male officials were
reluctant to make the necessary investment.
"But no country should consider itself so poor that it is
prepared to allow young mothers to die."
Unicef said HIV/AIDS was still spreading across the region,
with between two and 3.5 million infected. But Thailand and
Cambodia had shown the tide could be turned.
There was widespread ignorance among the young about the
disease. Young sex workers were especially in danger, often
forced to serve up to 10 customers a day.
The AIDS epidemic had also fueled demand for young prostitutes
who were mistakenly thought less likely to be infected.
The most significant mode of HIV transmission to children
under 15 was from mothers but this was preventable, Unicef said.
It said more than half a million children in the region had
lost one or both parents to AIDS and the number was expected to
double by 2005.
The report said an estimated 300,000-400,000 children in the
region were victims of trafficking, mainly for the sex industry.
Thailand's "thriving sex industry," which previously recruited
from the north of the country, was now using children and adults
from Cambodia, Laos, China and Myanmar as Thai living standards
rose.
In Thailand up a quarter of sex workers were under 18 and in
Indonesia one-third. Most exploitation of child sex workers was
by local men.