Ismael Bermúdez
12/04/2020 9:11 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 12/04/2020 9:30 AM
With 64.1%, girls, boys and adolescents are the poorest of the poor.
And with 16% they are the most destitute of the indigent.
Children under 17 years of age number 13 million throughout the country.
From this it can be deduced that at the national level there are 8.3 million girls, boys and adolescents living in poor households, of which
2 million live in families that cannot afford to buy a basic food basket.
Thus, of the 20 million poor nationwide, more than 40% are under 17 years of age.
And out of every 10 kids, almost 7 are poor.
These data are from the Debt Observatory of the UCA (Argentine Catholic University) and the boys are in that situation despite the collection by the families of the Universal Child Allowance (AUH) that covers 4.3 million boys and adolescents , the food card, the IFE (Family Emergency Income) and other social plans.
Consequently, without these plans, indigence and child poverty would be much greater,
would exceed 70%
, while marking the limits of social plans.
Next week the Observatory will release the most detailed report on this more than critical sector of the population.
This dimension of child poverty has dragged on for decades, remained at levels between 40 and 50%, hit another jump in 2018 with 51.7% and in 2019 with 59.5%, and, due to the recession and the deterioration of income due to the pandemic and quarantine jumped to 64.1%.
These indicators confirm that it is
structural in nature
, marks a present reality and is a factor in the reproduction of poverty.
Because the boy who is born and develops with food, housing, health or education deprivation has a compromised future.
And also the whole society.
The poor boy or adolescent is poor because his parents are.
And this means that the majority of children and adolescents live in households supported by the unemployed, precarious and informal formal workers, the underemployed and the self-employed who also work in the informal sector, without social security coverage and who
are the majority among those who in recent months they lost their jobs.
All of which amplifies the persistence and dimension of poverty.
From the official data that 2 million children live in indigent households, it is clear that they
suffer from "food insecurity"
or directly hunger
("severe food insecurity").
This explains the proliferation and the greater influx of families with children to the soup kitchens and popular picnic areas.
Although those under 17 years of age stand out as having the highest proportion of poor people, poverty also increased among the remaining age groups.
No age group was able to escape loss of income or social decline.
Among those between 18 and 29 years old it is 44.1%.
Between 30 and 59 it is 41% and with more than 60 years it rises to 14.4%.
Among older adults, in 10 years, poverty doubled from 6.5% in 2010 to 14.4%.
NE
Look also
For the UCA, unemployment jumped to 14.2%, but it could be higher if people went out to look for work
Almost half of the country is submerged in poverty, which jumped to 44.2% and hits 20 million people