Poverty in Mexico and Nepal

            I chose to explore some of the information in Mexico and Nepal around poverty.

    When reading about the state of poverty with regards to children in Mexico, it seemed somewhat hopeful in that the government has instituted several social policy changes to try to decrease the number of children and families living in poverty.  Mexico is considered to be a medium to high country in its wealth and value, yet "regarding poverty measures based on monetary income, about 25% of Mexican children (10 million approximately) lived in conditions of food poverty in 2005; in other words, they lived in homes where income was insufficient to purchase the basic food basket. (UNICEF, 2008, p. 1)"  Children living in the rural areas and part of the indigenous population are living in much worse conditions (33%) compared to the general population (12%).  (UNICEF, 2008) The remote locations of the indigenous populations makes it difficult to get them to the different social services.
     There has been improvement and the government has it on its priority list of policy changes to markedly decrease the plight of these children.  Education through the middle school level is required and yet "40% of youth fifteen years old and above cannot read and write, 9.5% of the popula- tion aged 5 to 17 years does not attend school (2005 CONTEO survey), and close to 12.5% of the children and youth work, which corresponds to approxi- mately 3.6 million children (INEGI, 2008 – National Institute for Statistics and Geography). (UNICEF, 2008, p.2)"
   The report also mentioned that while a decreasing percentage of children are still  showing signs of stunting, a new public health nemesis "childhood obesity" is on the rise.
      The situation in Nepal is much worse.  "The biggest single deprivation that children face in Nepal is a lack of access to sanitation. It affects 55 per cent of Nepal’s children — around 6.4 million young people. Sanitation deprivation has a direct impact on children’s health. Diseases linked to inadequate supplies of safe water and bad sanitation are the leading cause of child morbidity in the country. (UNICEF, 2008, p. 86)" "The second biggest deprivation is lack of adequate shelter which affects a third of Nepal’s children.    Malnutrition rates in Nepal are a scandal. One in every two children under the age of five is considered to be stunted. This means around 850,000 children will probably face difficulties meeting their full intellectual potential. (UNICEF, 2010, p. 87)"
    Nepal, not having the wealth of Mexico, not only has high rates of poverty, but child protective services are almost non existent.  Startling statistics are emerging "only about a third of children have their births registered and nearly a third of children aged 5–14 years work as child labourers. More than 127,000 children aged 10–14 years are engaged as porters, domestic workers and some of the other worst forms of child labour.  There are also a growing number of street children. An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 Nepali girls and young women are trafficked to India every year. A large number of children are victims of violence and need support and justice. Child protection activities, however, are under-funded. (UNICEF, 2010, p.87)"  
     So while Mexico is seeing some success in combating the poverty rates, Nepal lacks the resources Mexico has and children are not only facing poverty, disease, malnutrition, but also hard labor, being sold to other countries, and abuse.  Reading about the plight of children in these other parts of the world makes me ache in my heart.  Something needs to be done.  As long as we are not faced with the true situation, it is easy for us to bury our heads in the sand and not use our social conscious to do something about it.  I have not decided yet what I am going to do, but I have to do something.  
 
   
 





Reference

UNICEF, 2008, Retrieved Mar. 19, 2016.  http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Mexico_ChildPovertyandDisparitiesReport(1).pdf, 

UNICEF, 2010, Retrieved Mar. 19, 2016 http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Nepal_Child_Poverty_Report.pdf