How are Germany's children and adolescents? On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Federal Statistical Office has compiled its data. The bad news: Violence and neglect among minors are on the increase: In ten percent more children and adolescents, the youth welfare offices in 2018, a child endangerment. A total of 50,400 under 18 year olds were affected.
In view of the increasing danger, more minors have been taken into custody, the statisticians said. In about 6000 cases, the reasons were maltreatment or neglect, in another 840 cases sexual violence.
Heinz Hilgers, president of the German Child Protection Agency, described this development as "alarming". Children's rights should be incorporated in the Basic Law, he demanded.
At the same time, child poverty in Germany has fallen slightly: the number of minors at risk of poverty fell by six percent in 2018. According to the Federal Statistical Office, a total of 2.4 million children and adolescents were affected.
Those at risk of poverty are those who have less than 60 percent of the median income of the total population. For a family of four with children under the age of 14, the corresponding limit is € 2,385 per month.
More children can go on vacation
In addition, more children were able to go on vacation: While in 2017, 15.5 percent of households with children could not afford a one-week vacation trip, by 2018 there were only 13.4 percent.
However, according to the Kinderschutzbund, these figures do not reflect the actual situation of the children: just three million children received social benefits to secure the minimum subsistence allowance, four million would be entitled to it, according to Hilgers. Child poverty is particularly evident in the areas of education, social inclusion and health care.
While 17.3 percent of children in Germany are at risk of poverty, the situation in many European countries looks much better: In Slovenia, for example, only 13 percent of minors fall into this category. The European average is 24 percent. Romania is in last place with 38 percent of children at risk of poverty.
"It is a tremendous indictment of poverty that in view of the wealth in Germany we have to do with child poverty, violence and neglect to this extent," said Michael Klundt, professor of child policy in the study program Applied Childhood Sciences of the University of Magdeburg-Stendal. In view of the available financial resources one could counteract clearly.
