Azernews.Az

Friday March 29 2024

UNICEF: third of children in Armenia live in extreme poverty

27 September 2016 13:42 (UTC+04:00)
UNICEF: third of children in Armenia live in extreme poverty

By Rashid Shirinov

The Armenian office of UNICEF and Armenian Statistical Service have presented the first full national report on multidimensional child poverty in Armenia, ArmInfo agency reported.

Speaking at the presentation of the report, the representative of UNICEF office Tanja Radocaj noted that child poverty is not just the need for funding – it is a multidimensional problem.

“When children grow up in poverty, they lack many things that are taken for granted. Poverty deprives children of important and necessary conditions for living, including adequate food, education, leisure and housing,” she said, adding that poverty has a direct impact on the future of children.

The report was based on the analysis of a number of criteria - nutrition, education, rest, social relationships, possession of clothing, awareness, utility and housing conditions.

As children of different ages have different needs, the survey was compiled on three main age groups – 0-5, 6-14 and 15-17 years old.

“82 percent of children living in rural areas are deprived, as well as 53 percent of children living in cities,” the report stated. The main reason of the sharp difference is the gap in communal facilities and availability of information.

Moreover, when multidimensional poverty is compared with financial, it turns out that every third child in Armenia is poor and deprived. Twenty-eight percent children in Armenia are among the extremely needy, and they should be engaged in the policy of social support, the report emphasized.

“36 percent of children are in need but not poor. These children need to be provided with immediate assistance to address the vulnerability, as there is a danger that they may remain beyond the social policy aimed at eliminating only the material poverty.”

Additionally, more than 300 children in Armenia did not go to school this year and left their education incomplete, the Armenian National Center of Educational Technologies recently declared. 191 of them were forced to leave the school because of difficult social conditions.

In the meantime, many Armenian children, instead of studying, have to work every day to provide food for their poor families. About 30 percent of working children in Armenia are under 14, statistics reveal.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more