Why in News?
- Recently, International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) has published a report titled- “More than a billion reasons- The urgent need to build universal social protection for children”, which represents that just 1 in 4 children are shielded by social protection, leaving others exposed to poverty, exclusion and multidimensional deprivations.
Need for Social Protection-
- Social protection is a universal human right and a prerequisite for a world free from poverty.
- It is also a vital foundation to support the world’s most vulnerable children fulfil their potential.
- Social protection supports increase access to food, nutrition, education and healthcare.
- It can help stop child labour and child marriage and address the drivers of gender inequality and exclusion.
- It can also decrease stress and domestic violence, although supporting household livelihoods.
- And by tackling monetary poverty directly, it can also reduce the stigma and exclusion so various children living in poverty experience– and the pain that a childhood feeling “less than” can produce.
Major Findings of the Report-
- Global Scenario- Around 1.77 billion children aged 0-18 years lack access to a child or family cash benefit, a fundamental factor of a social protection system.
- Children are twice as expected to live in extreme poverty as adults.
- Around 800 million children are surviving below the poverty line of USD 3.20 a day, and one billion children are facing multidimensional poverty.
- Only 26.4 percent of children aged 0-15 years are shielded by social protection, leaving the remaining 73.6 percent exposed to poverty, exclusion and multidimensional deprivations.
- Worldwide, all 2.4 billion children require social protection to be healthy and happy.
- Social Protection Coverage- Child and family social protection coverage rates fell or stagnated in every region in the world during 2016-2020, leaving no country on track to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of achieving substantial social protection coverage by 2030.
- In Latin America and the Caribbean, coverage fell considerably from approximately 51% to 42 %.
- In several other regions, coverage has stalled and remains low.
- Risk- Various crises are likely to push more children into poverty, necessitating an immediate increase in social protection measures.
- The impacts of lack of social protection for children are both immediate and long-lasting, heightening rights violations like child labour and child marriage, and diminishing children’s aspirations and opportunities.
- And this unrealized human potential has inevitable adverse and long-term implications for communities, societies and economies more broadly.
- Significance of Social Protection-
- Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, children were more than twice as likely to be living in extreme poverty than adults.
- One billion children live in multidimensional poverty without any access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water.
- The Covid-19 pandemic underlined that social protection is a critical response in times of crisis.
- Nearly every government in the world either swiftly adapted present schemes or launched new social protection programmes to help children and families.
- In 2022, South Africa launched a welfare scheme, Child Support Grant (CSG) Top-Up, with an aim to increase the CSG amount for orphans and children heading or living in child-headed households.
- Around 31 states in India had implemented the national ‘PM CARES for Children’ scheme, a package of measures for 10,793 full orphans and 151,322 half-orphans. Thus far, 4,302 children have obtained support from the scheme.
Recommendations-
- Policymakers should take action towards universal social protection for all children, involving investments in benefits that offer proven and profitable ways to combat child poverty.
- Authorities are also suggested to give child benefits through national social protection systems that also connect families to important health and social services, like free or affordable quality childcare.
- There is a need for securing sustainable financing for schemes by mobilizing domestic resources, increasing budget allocation for children, reinforcing social protection for parents and caregivers and guaranteeing access to decent work and sufficient employee benefits.