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Asia has the highest number of poor children

Asia has the highest number of poor children: Plan report

Almost half of Asia\'s 1.27 billion children live in poverty, without proper food, water, healthcare or shelter, says a new report by the global child aid agency Plan. While 80% of India’s 400 million children are poor, China has made some progress in tackling child poverty

Nearly 600 million Asian children, close to half its young population, are living in poverty despite the region’s booming economy, according to a new report. Asia has the highest number of poor children in the world, more than even sub-Saharan Africa, says the report on child welfare in Asia by leading international children’s charity Plan.

According to ‘Growing Up in Asia’, around 350 million children under the age of 18 -- nearly one in three of Asia's youngsters -- are "absolutely poor" meaning they do not have access to two or more of a child's basic necessities like food, water, healthcare or shelter. Another 250 million or so have no access to one of these basic necessities, making for a total of around 600 million poor children in the region, says the report that details levels of child poverty in Asia.

"What is happening here is catastrophic," said Michael Diamond, Plan's Asia regional director, at the report's launch. "Asia has more than twice as many severely deprived children as sub-Saharan Africa." There are 265 million poor children in sub-Saharan Africa, the world’s poorest region.

Absolute poverty was defined by the 1995 World Summit on Social Development as “…a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information”. Severe deprivation is defined as “experiencing one or more deprivations of basic human needs”.

The report says that despite rapid economic growth in many countries, including the world's most populous nations -- China and India -- many Asian children are being left behind and lack access to such basics as food, clean water, shelter, healthcare, education and sanitation.

India has the largest number of poor children in Asia, with 80% of its 400 million young children severely deprived, the Plan report says. Sixty per cent of all children in India can be classed as "absolutely poor", with almost half of all Indian children under five malnourished. According to the report, India also has the highest number of working children in the world.

China, the report observed, had made "great strides in poverty reduction in recent years". Only 13 million of its 380 million child population are deprived.

"This scale of child poverty will have a serious impact on Asia's future prospects, unless it is addressed now…If nothing is done by rich and poor countries alike, the lost potential -- and lost lives -- could be one of the most tragic failings of modern times," said Diamond. "We will be judged in future generations, future centuries, when they write the history and compare us, maybe, to the holocaust."

Half of Asia’s families are failing to benefit from economic growth and globalisation, says Plan. Among the causes for child poverty, the report says, are the pressures of rapid population growth on scarce resources, lack of access to education, healthcare, clean water or sanitation, caste discrimination, and weak governance and corruption.

Tom Miller, Plan’s chief executive and a former US diplomat, called on the world's richest regions, in particular North America and Europe, to cut domestic agricultural subsidies to allow farmers in the world's poorest countries to make more from their exports.

The report recommends that rich nations write off Third World debt, although it says this must go hand-in-hand with improved levels of governance to ensure that the most vulnerable feel the benefits in the form of improved health services and education.

Plan itself has pledged to spend $1 billion on poverty reduction in 12 Asian countries -- Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, East Timor, Vietnam and the Philippines -- over the next 10 years. The 68-year-old agency says it will try to give children a voice and change the attitudes of many societies towards their treatment of under-18s.