In a world full of problems, it is the children who suffer -- UNICEF

In a world full of problems, it is the children who suffer -- UNICEF
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, MARCH 3: Every day, about 30,500 children under the age of five die of many preventable causes around the world despite the existence of the UN conventions on child rights, ratified by 191 countries, to protect them from such dangers.

"Every day, nations fail to meet their moral and legal obligations to realise the rights of children. Thus, 30,500 boys and girls under the age of five die of many preventable causes," says UNICEF in its annual report - The State of World's Children 2000.

The report, which describes armed conflicts, AIDS and intense poverty as some of the problems which have reversed the gains in child welfare in developing countries, says an estimated two million children have been killed and six million injured or disabled in armed conflicts in the last decade and still more millions are victims of human rights abuses.

According to studies carried out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), at least 250 million children between ages of 5-14 are forced to work as labourers, 20 per cent of whom are trapped in extremely hazardous conditions, it says.

More than 15 million children have been forced to leave their homes and countries as refugees and more than one million have been orphaned or separated from their families, the report says. The report also points out that about 130 million children, two-thirds of whom are girls, around the world do not or cannot go to school.

Sexual exploitation was another major concern with about one million children being forced to work as child prostitutes which leads to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS, the UNICEF report says adding that about 250,000 children are getting infected by this fatal disease every month.

The UNICEF report also censures governments in developing countries for failing to provide basic social services and postponing full-scale campaigns needed to stop the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

It however commends these countries for having accomplished major successes in the campaign against polio, improvement in other public health areas like safe drinking water, better sanitation facilities and in providing mass information.