Economy & Trade, Europe, Headlines, Human Rights

SOCIETY: Transition Economy Robs Children of Childhood

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Nov 5 2004 (IPS) - Twelve-year-old year Amira Jahic accompanies her mother to the open-air flea market in Belgrade every morning. She spends the day helping mother out at their second-hand goods stall.

On their way they pass several schools. Amira has never been to one, like children from about 15,000 Serb families. These are some of the poorest among about 600,000 children in Serbia whose families live on less than two dollars a day.

A report on children like her from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has now raised a public outcry. Dramatic headlines have appeared in local newspapers. ‘Poverty deprives children in Serbia of their future’, said one.

Beyond the headlines difficult questions are being raised about the transition to a market economy that could be creating such a situation.

"The strategy to eradicate poverty in Serbia includes efforts to help children as well," Mihail Arandarenko from the government team against poverty told IPS. "But it seems that this problem is a trademark for transition countries and that even economic recovery does not improve the situation among children."

Economic recovery does not immediately bring back free health care, good education systems and improved living standards for all, he said.

The UNICEF study on children in 27 Eastern and Central Europe (CEE) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries presents stark statistics to underline Arandarenko’s remarks. Children living in transition economies thousands of miles apart share the same fate, the report shows.

The study says 14 million out of 44 million children in CEE/CIS states live in poverty. They are deprived of their rights to social services, good care and education.

"This is a broadly dispersed region we covered, but the problems of children are definitely common in all of them," Anne Lyse Svensson, head of the UNICEF Belgrade office told IPS.

The report ‘Social Monitor 2004’ following three years of research that compared the current situation with that in 1992 points out that since the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and the wars in former Yugoslavia, the number of countries in the region has gone from eight to 27. This has brought substantial changes in economic and other circumstances.

Highly industrialised or traditional agricultural areas have seen a catastrophic collapse, the report says. Free health care and education became unavailable to many following the change.

The new age has brought violence and desperation, with more children in institutions due to the disintegration of families, the study says. And that has happened because of a desperate economic situation.

One consequence has been the soaring drug and alcohol abuse among the young, the study says. "It is the assessment of this study that in some regions of CIS, for example, the consumption of drugs is ten times higher than in the countries of Western Europe," Svensson said.

Migration of young people with small children is particularly a problem in CEE/CIS countries, she added. More than a fifth of migrants to Russia from CIS countries are below age 20, the report says.

Illegal immigrants and their children face more acute problems, the study says. They often become victims of exploitation and social exclusion. Their illegal status prevents access to many public services.

"A lot needs to be done in order to help children in transition, as it clearly disseminates profound inequality," Arandarenko said.

Svensson said that "policy and legislative reform to protect all children and all their rights is the cornerstone of UNICEF’s programme with governments in the region and the critical route to combat poverty and achieve social, economic and political sustainability."