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300m S Asian children live in absolute poverty

Unicef regional director tells conference

Staff Correspondent
The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) yesterday called on the South Asian governments to urgently address child poverty, saying that over 300 million of the 613 million children in the region are trapped in absolute poverty.
Daniel Toole, Unicef regional director for South Asia, said: "Due to persistent and deep inequalities, children in South Asia become trapped in an unrelenting cycle of discrimination at several levels -- poor nutrition, health and sanitation and being excluded from education. This puts a child's face to chronic poverty. So, we can now design more strategic policies.''
He said this at the opening ceremony of a three-day regional conference on 'Achieving child well-being and equity in South Asia' at a cityhotel.
Addressing the session as the chief guest, Planning Minister AK Khandkar said 26.5 million of the 63 million children live in poverty in Bangladesh. The government, however, has taken up a good number of initiatives
to address not only their poverty, but all in general.
"Social protection, especially for the children, would be one of the highest priority agenda in the upcoming Perspective Plan (2010-2021) and Sixth Five Year Plan (2011-2015),"he added.
The minister said a common understanding of child poverty and disparities for achieving child well-being and equity in South Asia would provide a strong platform to work collectively.
According to Daniel, poverty affects children not just as a side effect of their parents' income but their own profound deprivation, and that children's seven basic needs -- food, education, health, information, shelter, water and sanitation -- must be addressed to end their poverty.
Over the past decade, child poverty rates in South Asia have stagnated or even worsened in some areas, raising grave concerns about their well-being, he said, adding: "Investing in children is both a fundamental responsibility and an opportunity that, if not grabbed now, will tarnish a nation's growth.”
"This is a responsibility,
because poverty and under-nutrition damages a child's chance to thrive and also hampers the potential of countries to develop. More than other interventions, investing resources into good nutrition, primary health care, education and protection for children will provide rich rewards in future."
Key interventions that require investment include scaling-up national programmes on nutrition and associated health interventions, including community-based management of acute malnutrition, newborn and maternal health initiatives and support to basic health services through childhood, youth and early adulthood for women, as well as improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene and education.
Women and Children Affairs Minister Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Vice Chairman of Planning Commission of Nepal Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada, Deputy Minister of Health and Family of the Maldives Mariya All, Saarc Director (Information of Poverty Alleviation) Niranjan Basnyat were present.