No child's play

Analysing child support policies among the group of developed economies, new findings by the UN Children’s Fund’s global research centre, Innocenti, highlight that despite an overall decrease in poverty of nearly eight per cent over the period between 2014 and 2021, there were still more than 69 million children living in households earning less than 60 per cent of the average national income, marking a significant rise in child poverty in 40 of the world’s richest countries.

For most children, this means that they may grow up without enough nutritious food, clothes, school supplies, or a warm place to call home. It also stops them from realising their basic rights and can lead to poor physical and mental health.

Poland and Slovenia are highlighted as two countries performing the best in tackling child poverty, followed by Latvia and South Korea. However, this is in sharp contrast to some of the richest countries that are lagging behind.

The consequences of poverty can last a lifetime, says the report. Children who experience poverty have less chance of completing school and hence earn lower wages as adults. In some countries, a person born in a deprived area is likely to live eight to nine years less than a person born in a wealthy area, it reveals.

Huge inequalities are also projected across 38 countries that have available data, revealing that children living in a single-parent family are over three times as likely to be living in poverty as their other counterparts. Children with disabilities or from minority ethnic/racial backgrounds are also at higher-than-average risk. The years from 2012 to 2019 saw largely stable economic growth among the countries surveyed, presenting an opportunity to recover from the impacts of the 2008-10 recession.

And yet, while several countries reduced child poverty, some of the wealthiest saw the biggest reversals. Countries with similar levels of national income, such as Slovenia and Spain, experienced stark differences in child poverty rates, 10 and 28 per cent respectively.

Children’s living conditions can also be improved irrespective of a country’s wealth. Poland, Slovenia, Latvia, and Lithuania — not among the richest countries of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU) — have achieved important reductions in child poverty, with minus 38 per cent in Poland and minus 31 per cent in the other countries.

Yet five higher-income countries — the United Kingdom (+20 per cent) and France, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland (all around +10 per cent) — recorded the greatest increases in the number of children living in households experiencing financial hardship since 2014.

If child poverty is to be eliminated, says the report, governments and stakeholders should be urgently looking to expand social protection for children, including child and family benefits to supplement families’ household income.

They must also ensure all children have access to basic needs like childcare and free education, create employment opportunities with adequate pay and family-friendly policies and adapt measures to the specific needs of minority groups and single-headed households.

“Cash benefits have an immediate effect in alleviating poverty. Decision-makers can support households by prioritising and increasing expenditure on child and family benefits,” said Bo Viktor Nylund, director of Innocenti, adding that the impacts of such poverty on children “are both persistent and damaging”.

Interestingly, a report by ‘Bloomberg’ stated that the end of unprecedented pandemic-era federal benefits for families has sent US child poverty rates soaring, leaving a handful of state governments to step in to fill the gap.

Eleven states have created or expanded a fully refundable child tax credit following the expiration at the end of 2021 of the federal measure, which enabled families to get as much as USD 3,600 per child. Those national benefits helped cut the child poverty rate by nearly half to 5.2 per cent in 2021, according to the Census Bureau.

The number of children living in poverty in the United States more than doubled in 2022, according to new figures released by the US Census Bureau in September, the biggest increase since it began using its current method to count them. In 2021, 5.2 per cent of children were living in poverty. In 2022 that figure was 12.4 per cent, or about 9 million children. This hike was part of a wider rise in poverty recorded by the Census, some of which can be attributed to inflation. But advocates for children say the leap was particularly stark for kids — and was avoidable, a ‘Time’ report mentioned.

An uptick in the number of children living in poverty had been widely expected, because of the expiration of the enhanced version of the Child Tax Credit programme (CTC) that had been instituted in July 2021 as a means of defraying the financial burden that the stay-at-home measures had imposed on parents. The CTC gave parents a historically high yearly tax credit (of up to USD 3,600 per child), depending on age, which was often paid upfront monthly and did not have to be paid back if the parents’ tax bill didn’t reach a certain amount.

While an increase was expected, advocates for children were surprised by the size of the jump and seized on the moment to trumpet the effectiveness of the policy and to mourn its expiration at the end of 2021, after Congress failed to extend the CTC expansion, it stated.

In India, the reduction in poverty levels follows a significant trend. As per the NITI Aayog’s 2023 National Multidimensional Poverty Index report, India has registered a significant decline of almost 10 per cent in the number of India’s multidimensionally poor from 24.85 per cent in 2015-16 to 14.96 per cent in 2019-2021. The rural areas witnessed the fastest decline in poverty from 32.5 per cent to 19.2 per cent. A record 13.5 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty between 2015-16 and 2019-21. India is on track to achieve SDG target 1.2 (which is to reduce at least by half the proportion of those living in poverty) much ahead of the 2030 deadline. As per the Multidimensional Poverty Index 2023 report of UNDP; “India saw a remarkable reduction in poverty, with 415 million people exiting poverty within a span of just 15 years (2005/6–19/21)”.

The incidence of multidimensional poverty in India thus fell from 55.1 per cent in 2005-06 to 16.4 per cent in 2019-21. Furthermore, the report also noted that deprivation in all indicators declined in India, and “the poorest states and groups, including children and people in disadvantaged caste groups, had the fastest absolute progress.”

Anti-poverty strategies in India encompass a wide range of interventions, addressing various dimensions of poverty, including income, education, healthcare, housing and nutrition. The measures that India has put into application, especially to address child poverty, include:

* Public Distribution System (PDS) involves nationwide food security programmes providing subsidised food grains to eligible beneficiaries, ensuring vulnerable populations having access to essential food items at affordable prices.

* Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is a government programme that addresses child malnutrition and health issues by providing supplementary nutrition, healthcare, and preschool education to children in the age group of 0-6 years and to pregnant and lactating mothers.

* Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) is a housing scheme aiming to provide affordable housing to the urban and rural poor.

* National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) focuses on enhancing the livelihoods of rural households through skill development, self-help groups, and microfinance support.

* Mid-Day Meal Scheme provides free meals to school children, encouraging attendance and improving nutrition.

* Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system ensures that government subsidies and financial assistance are directly transferred to the bank accounts of beneficiaries.

However, it is important to note that India is a diverse country with significant regional disparities, and poverty rates can vary greatly from one state to another.

While the recent reports by the UNDP and NITI Aayog paint a healthy picture of successful poverty reduction in India, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023 report highlighted that 104 crore or 74 per cent of Indians are unable to afford a healthy diet. The second report is prepared by combined efforts of credible agencies such as the FAO, UNICEF, WHO and World Food Programme.

Views expressed are personal