A CHILD PREDICAMENT
Forty thousand
children under five years of age die daily.Some
100 million children
live on the
street, where they are forced to
scavenge, steal and often fall prey to
drugs, prostitution and gangs.An
increasing number of children are AIDS orphans,whose parents have died
from AIDS. The number of children living in poverty in the United
States has risen by more than three million over the last ten
years( NEWSDAY, June 9, 1990). At least 250 Filipino children die each
day of preventable diseases like
pneumonia, diarrhia and measles.An additional 94,000 babies die each
year even before they reach their first birthday.An estimated six
million children, about one-fourth the
country's total employed labor
force, are working under gruelling conditions,deprived of a chance to
go to
school or even enjoy their childhood.About 1.5 million
street children roam the sidewalks of the country,most of them
malnourishedand ailing, prey to drugs and prostitution. There are an
estimated five million victims of child abuse all over the country,
many of them victimized by their own parents or members of the
family ( Philippine Daily Inquirer , January 2,1991)
.About 300,000 or 10 per
cent of high school students nationwide,
are on drugs, with Metro Manila having an even higher proportion at
13.52 per cent. Three per cent of grade school pupils and 19 per cent
of college student at one time or another, have used illegal drugs.The
drug rehabilitation centers have a yearly average admission rate of
1,000 drug dependents, 58 per cent of whom are high school students.( The Philippine Star, September 1, 1990)
Seven million children are now in the labor force,about 750,000
of these children are found in Metro Manila, selling cigarettes and
flowers, scavenging and even working as laborers and helpers.Thirteen
per cent are beggars, 11 per cent are prostitutes, and four per cent
are pickpockets.( The Philippine Star , July 30, 1990) Today , we have roughly fifteen million
children; six out of every ten live below the poverty line and
,consequently, suffer from varying degrees of malnutrition. The infant
mortality rate remains at a high of 52 per thousand live birth. This
means that nearly 94,000 babies dies before they reach their first
birthday.Among children and youth of school age , about 3.4 million are
out of school. Most of these out-of-school youths ends up as street
children such as vendors, beggars, prostitutes and vegrants.( The Manila Chronicle, July 26, 1990)
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