Sunday, April 8, 2012

Save the Greek Children

According to a Unicef report on childhood in Greece, there are more than 400 thousand
of children living below the poverty line. They represent almost a quarter of all children.
One third of poor families are single parent. Greece has the highest percentage of children
suffering from malnutrition in OECD countries.

This dramatic situation puts in question the efficacy of national legislation and policies to
improve children living conditions. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is once
again violated as every child has the right to have a decent life. But this is also another evidence
of harmful austerity policies which affect in primis the children, especially those belonging to
poor families.

P.S: B.Atkinson, the Oxford economist, known for his studies on economic inequality, carried
out a study for Unicef where he develops a framework to assess the relationship between
macroeconomic policies and family welfare, especially for children in the context of the EMU. If
we follow his reasoning, it would come out that the outcome of economic policies has been
globally unfavourable, not to say penalizing for children in Europe. 



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