Split between rich and poor greater in cities, UNICEF reports

Five-year-old Kiara appears well cared for — nicely dressed, well-fed and loved. Her hair shines.

But she has worked with her family since she was three, selling trinkets in the subway trains of Buenos Aires.

There have been mishaps: she has fallen onto the train tracks while playing, and last year she broke her arm in a train door.

Almost half the world’s children live in cities. Their families are lured from their rural homes, hoping to find jobs for themselves and education for their children.

It doesn’t always work out that way. “It’s heartbreaking for parents,” says David Morley, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada. “They don’t want their children working on the street. They wish they had enough.”

In its annual report, released on Tuesday, UNICEF explores the struggles faced by families raising their offspring in the world’s slums, where one in three city-dwellers now live.

The report, entitled “The State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World,” reveals the shifting focus of aid and development agencies. “We often think of poverty-stricken rural areas in Africa, Latin America and Asia,” says Morley. “But you can be in cities, almost like middle-class Toronto, and hidden in valleys there are people are living in shacks made of tin. We recognize this is where economic and population growth is going to happen and how do we make sure children don’t get squeezed out in the process?”

It’s often thought — and in many cases this is the case — that opportunity abounds in cities. Families may be closer to schools or health services. But that doesn’t mean all have the same access, says Morley. “The wealth divide between rich and poor is massive.” Many can’t afford the cost of uniforms and books or pay the fees for schools.

In Delhi, only 55 per cent of children who live in slums attend primary school, compared to 90 per cent for the city as a whole.

In an essay in the report, Queen Rania al Abdullah of Jordan writes about the effects of conflict on school attendance. In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the number of primary school-aged children who do not attend school has jumped from 4,000 to 110,000 — a 2,650-per-cent increase — from 1999, she notes.

Another study of 503 health centres in three slum communities in Kenya showed only one per cent were public, 16 per cent were private not-for-profit, and the vast majority, 83 per cent, were private for-profit. These clinics were often unlicensed, in ramshackle buildings with no protocols for service.

Around the world, about one-third of children of the urban poor — the numbers are higher in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia — are not registered at birth. They may be born at home or their parents may be illiterate. “It’s so much harder,” says Morley. “Think of ourselves — we can’t go to a clinic without an OHIP card. If you’re not registered at birth you can’t get a health card.”

While working in a vaccination centre in the Republic of Congo, he saw that those without health cards didn’t get treatment. “Governments use it as a way of rationing services and they can save money.”

Municipal governments often want nothing to do with squatters and families who set up in shacks in the city. Morley argues it has to be just the opposite. Governments need to work with, not spurn, the fringe communities and recognize and subsidize the ad hoc informal organizations, daycares and schools that grow with them.

Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Leslie Scrivener