Pretoria - The impact of poverty on a child’s development is long-term, and at least 60 percent of South Africa’s 18.5 million children are poor and stand the risk of missing out on education, employment and health benefits throughout their lives.
Children who grow up in poor households are likely to remain poor, said the 2012 Child Gauge, and this because there are generally no change in the pattern of relative deprivation over time.
Studies conducted worldwide over five years estimated that cognitive development of more than 200 million children under the age of 5 was held back by poverty, ill-health and under-nutrition, and it identified early childhood as “the most effective and cost-efficient time to ensure all children develop their full potential”.
In South Africa, children living in poverty were most likely to suffer from under-nutrition, and would be stunted throughout their lives as a result.
According to the report, on studies conducted by the Children’s Institute, under-nutrition was also related to fewer years of schooling and reduced economic activity.
The country’s socio-economic inequality played a role in the poverty levels found across the country, the resultant deprivation not only affecting the lives of children during their childhood, but also on their prospects as adults.
“There is compelling evidence to show that children’s survival, development, and life trajectories are largely determined by their early socio-economic circumstances,” University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Dr Max Price said.
He said inequality and poverty, combined with HIV, had reduced life expectancy at birth. Education was not being delivered at a quality geared towards enabling the next generation to escape the poverty trap, he said.
Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel said there were many examples of the long-lasting effects of poverty. “It can also be seen across generations, as women who were undernourished in childhood are more likely to give birth to underweight children.”
He said studies into the wellbeing of children showed that while many development indicators for the country were improving, it was not always the case for children.
“South Africa’s children are being left behind, and this because, in some cases, they have lost at least one or both biological parents, and because nearly two-thirds of children live below the R575-per-month poverty line,” he said.
That more than a third lived in households where no adult was employed and nearly 2 million children lived in informal houses and backyard dwellings, did not make things better.
Manuel said it was a painful fact that most schools did not provide children with the skills they would need in adult life.
Education was therefore among the great equalisers of the disparities faced by the country’s different communities of children. Economically advantaged students had an edge over the poor.
The provision of equal access to quality education and increased access to higher education were identified as major interventions that could contribute towards breaking the inequality cycle. Earnings and unemployment were the drivers of income inequality, the success in the labour market critical in determining household income.
Education played a predominant role in determining who was employed, and the earnings they received, school completion (matric), tertiary education and further education and skills training giving young people entering the labour market an advantage. “Only a few poor learners get the education necessary to enter top-income jobs, and in this way, inequality was recycled, and the stark differences in incomes between the rich and the poor in South Africa being reinforced,” the report said.
Said Manuel: “A third of children do not have access to drinking water at home.” And according to the report, more than 6 million children used unventilated pit latrines, buckets or open land last year, despite the state’s oft-stated goals to provide adequate sanitation to all, and to eradicate the bucket system.
“Among children in the poorest 20 percent of households, less than half have access to water on site, while over 90 percent of those in the richest 20 percent of households have this level of service.”
In this way, inequalities were reinforced: the poorest children were most at risk of diseases associated with poor water quality.
Poor sanitation was associated with diarrhoea, cholera, malaria, bilharzia, worm infestations, eye infections and skin disease, illnesses that compromised children’s nutritional status.
Pretoria News