Several civil society organizations warned this Wednesday of the increased risk of poverty among Portuguese children and called on governments to make the issue a political priority.
According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), there is “an increase in the child poverty rate — 347 thousand children at risk of monetary poverty (44 thousand more than in the previous year)”, say the signatories of an open letter released today .
The “child poverty risk rate in 2023 was 20.7%”, corresponding to a return to 2017 values, which places children as the “age group that records the highest poverty risk rate and also the one in that a more unfavorable evolution of this indicator is observed”, can be read in the document, signed by experts and several organizations, including the European Anti-Poverty Network, Child Support Institute and Cáritas Portuguesa.
The Sustainable Development Goals, of which Portugal is a signatory, foresee a 50% reduction in the number of children in poverty compared to 2019 (360 thousand).
However, “the current scenario does not give us guarantees that in 2030 the country will be meeting the established target”, say the subscribers who criticize the lack of articulation of the “various strategies aimed at the well-being of children”, in particular the Child Guarantee projects, the National Strategy for the Rights of the Child 2021-2024 or the National Strategy to Combat Poverty 2021-2030.
The problem, they say, has several causes, including “the scarcity of family income (usually associated with low wages and precarious employment), precarious housing conditions and energy poverty, inequalities in access to quality and inclusive education, difficulty in accessing mental health care, dangers of the digital world/digital exclusion, migratory phenomena, violence and juvenile delinquency or abuse”.
Given this diagnosis, the subscribers call for political changes that ensure concrete positive consequences for children, with investment in projects that place young people at the center of projects to combat poverty.
The letter calls for an “approach based on the rights of the child as a subject of rights, as supported by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, that is clear, integrative and coordinated intervention for the development of policies and programs that guarantee the best interests of children”
The appeal was released today on the day that marks 35 years since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and within the scope of the Child Poverty Working Group, led by the European Anti-Poverty Network.
Source: www.cmjornal.pt
