Child poverty

Child povertyrefers to the state ofchildrenliving inpovertyand applies to children from poor families ororphansbeing raised with limited or, in some cases absent, state resources.

The plight ofimpoverishedchildrenanywhere should evokesympathy,exemplifying as it does thesufferingof theinnocentanddefenseless.~Rajan Menon

Quotes

• Poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to children:they have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty; they think of the word only as connected with ragged clothes, scanty food, fireless grates, rude manners and debasing vices: poverty for me was synonymous with degradation.
  • Charlotte Brontë,Jane Eyre(1847).

In India

• TheCOVID-19 outbreakis yet another demonstration of how theIndian pooraresystematicallyexcludedfrom the government’s policy-making. A case in point is thegovernment’s failure to account for the 40 million poor andhomelesschildren before declaringthe lockdown.
  • Surya Gupta andArmin Rosencranz,COVID-19, the Government’s Response, and India’s Sustainable Development Goals(May 22, 2020), edited by Tim Zubizarreta,JURIST

In New Zealand

• [O]n my measure, if you have hundreds of thousands of children living in homeswithout enough to survive,that’s a blatant failure. What else could you describe it as?
  • Jacinda Ardern,on the statement byWinston Petersthatcapitalism had failedfor many New Zealanders. Interview with Lisa Owen atNewshub Nation,21 October 2017.Transcript onlineatScoop.

• There should be no placein a wealthy societylike ours for children to grow up without theirbasic needsbeing met.
  • Jacinda Ardern,during an interview with Lisa Owen atNewshub Nation,21 October 2017.Transcript onlineatScoop.

In the United States

• One in fiveAmerican childrenlivein poverty,even aspunditstoutemploymenthighs.
  • Rajan Menon,Trump’s War on the Poor Includes Our Children(February 4, 2020),The Nation.

• The plight of impoverishedchildrenanywhere should evokesympathy,exemplifying as it does the suffering of the innocent and defenseless. Poverty among children in a wealthy country like theUnited States,however, should summonshameand outrage as well. Unlikepoor countries(sometimes run byleadersmore interestedin lining their pocketsthan anything else), what excuse does the United States have for its striking levels of child poverty?After all, it has the world’s 10th highest per capita income at $62,795 and an unrivalledgross domestic product(GDP) of $21.3 trillion. Despite that, in 2020, an estimated 11.9 million American kids—16.2 percent of the total—live below the official poverty line, which is a paltry $25,701 for afamilyof four with two kids. Put another way, according to theChildren’s Defense Fund,kids now constitute one-third of the 38.1 million Americans classified as poor and 70 percent of them have at least oneworking parent—so poverty can’t be chalked up to parental indolence.
  • Rajan Menon,Trump’s War on the Poor Includes Our Children(February 4, 2020),The Nation.

• Theconservativeresponse to all this remains predictable: You can’t solve complexsocial problemslike child poverty by throwing money at them. Besides,governmentantipoverty programsonly foster dependence and create bloatedbureaucracieswithout solving the problem. It matters little thatthe successofAmerican social programsproves this claim to be flat-out false.
  • Rajan Menon,Trump’s War on the Poor Includes Our Children(February 4, 2020),The Nation.

• Imagine, for a moment, this scenario: a 200-meter footrace in which the starting blocks of some competitors are placed 75 meters behind the others. Barring an Olympic-caliber runner, those who started way in front will naturally win. Now, think of that as an analogy for the predicament that American kids born in poverty face through no fault of their own. They may be smart and diligent, their parents may do their best to care for them, but they begin life with a huge handicap.As a start, thenutritionof poor children will generally beinferiorto that of other kids. No surprise there, but here’s what’s not common knowledge: A childhood nutritional deficit mattersfor years afterwards,possibly for life. [...] Indeed, the process starts even earlier. Poormothersmay themselves havenutritional deficienciesthat increase their risk of having babies withlow birth weights.That, in turn, can have long-term effects on children’shealth,whatlevel of education they reach,andtheir future incomessince the quality of nutrition affectsbrain size,concentration,andcognitive capacity.It also increases the chances of havinglearning disabilitiesand experiencingmental healthproblems. Poor children are likely to be less healthy in other ways as well, for reasons that range from having a greater susceptibility toasthmato higher concentrations oflead in their blood.Moreover, poor families find it harder to get goodhealth care.And add one more thing: in ourzip-code-influencedpublic-school system,such children are likely to attendschoolswith far fewer resources than those in moreaffluent neighborhoods.
  • Rajan Menon,Trump’s War on the Poor Includes Our Children(February 4, 2020),The Nation.

• Ournational opioid problemalso affects thewell-beingof children in a striking fashion. According to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), between 2008 and 2012, a third of women in their childbearing years filledopioid-basedmedication prescriptionsinpharmaciesand an estimated 14 percent–22 percent of them werepregnant.The result: an alarming increase in the number of babies exposed to opioids in utero and experiencing withdrawal symptoms at birth, which is also known asneonatal abstinence syndrome,or NAS, inmedical lingo.[...] At this point, you won’t be surprised to learn that NAS and child poverty are connected. Prescription opioid use rates are much higher for women onMedicaid,who are more likely to be poor than those with privateinsurance.Moreover, theabuseof, andoverdosedeaths from, opioids (whether obtained through prescriptions orillegally) have been far more widespread among the poor.
  • Rajan Menon,Trump’s War on the Poor Includes Our Children(February 4, 2020),The Nation.

• From the months before birth on, poverty diminishes opportunity, capacity, and agency and its consequences reach intoadulthood.[...] Child poverty certainly does ensure a future-rigged society. The good news (though not inDonald Trump’s America): The race to a half-decent life (or better) doesn’t have to be rigged.
  • Rajan Menon,Trump’s War on the Poor Includes Our Children(February 4, 2020),The Nation.

• Can children born into poverty defy the odds, realize their potential, and lead fulfilling lives? Conservatives will point to stories of people who cleared all the obstacles created by child poverty as proof that the real solution is hard work. But let’s be clear: Poor children shouldn’t have to find themselves on a tilted playing field from the first moments of their lives. Individual success stories aside, Americans raised inpoorfamilies do markedly less well compared to those frommiddle classor affluent homes—and it doesn’t matter whether you choose college attendance, employment rates, or future household income as your measure. And the longer they live in poverty the worse the odds that they’ll escape it in adulthood; for one thing, they’re far less likely to finish high school or attend college than their more fortunate peers. [...] Yet childhood circumstances can be (and have been) changed—and the sorts of government programs that conservatives love to savage have helped enormously in that process.
  • Rajan Menon,Trump’s War on the Poor Includes Our Children(February 4, 2020),The Nation.

• Our ownhistoryand that of other wealthy countries show that child poverty is anything but an unalterable reality. The record also shows that changing it requiresmobilizing fundsof the sort now being wasted on ventures like America’smultitrillion-dollarforever wars.
  • Rajan Menon,Trump’s War on the Poor Includes Our Children(February 4, 2020),The Nation.

• Programs that reduce child poverty help even in years when poor or near-poor parents gain and, of course, are critical in bad times, since sooner or later booming job markets also bust.
  • Rajan Menon,Trump’s War on the Poor Includes Our Children(February 4, 2020),The Nation.

• 13 million children are hungry in America. Yet most politicians do not even talk about it. Children aren’t old enough to vote, nor old enough to work therefore they have no financial leverage. They’re not old enough to advocate for themselves. That’s our job. The political establishment has simply normalized the despair of millions of American children who are chronically traumatized by poverty, hunger, and all manner of violence. This is what happens when government becomes more an instrument of corporate profits then of conscience. The vulnerabilities, challenges and chronic trauma of millions of American children should be recognized as a social justice issue. An economic system with no particular use for children - or for older people - has left both groups underserved. This country shouldn’t be run like a business, it should be run like a family. First we should take care of our children & older people, making sure they have everything they need to thrive. Everything else would then heal itself from there. Moral repair precedes societal repair.
  • Marianne Williamson,In a Twitter thread,30 December 2019,Twitter.

See also

• Child mortality