Pitiable Plight of Children

Pitiable Plight of Children

By Dr Arvind Kumar

UNICEF’s release of State of World Children 2011 report presents a grim picture of the plight of the children, particularly in developing countries. Nearly one out of every five people on the planet today is an adolescent. Nearly 90 percent of them live in the developing world. And far too many of them are being left behind. The report presents alarming statistics about children:

• Almost half of the world’s adolescents do not attend secondary school.
• 150 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are engaged in child labour.
• An untold number of adolescents are trafficked – with an estimated one million exploited for cheap labour or the sex trade every year.
• Hundreds of thousands are associated with armed groups – as soldiers, spies, messengers and sex slaves.
• And around 70 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation.

These outrageous statistics don’t even begin to cover the countless millions of adolescents who are denied adequate nutrition, who lack access to basic health care, who become mothers in childhood – at great risk to their lives – and who are simply not acquiring the skills they need to make the most of their potential.

The impact of these deprivations is profound – not only on adolescents themselves, but on our societies. The time has come to invest in the future by investing in adolescents today. This is the right thing to do. If we want to break the cycle of poverty and build a stronger, more equitable world, we must also focus on adolescents.