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“Only a minority (25%) of all "street kids" in Central America actually belongs to the latter group, although the increase in the number of street children over the last decade has been massive (an eight time increase in Tegucigalpa alone). Most street children are boys and leave their homes around the age of 12. Market children are in general younger and the gender distribution is more equal. Overall, street children face more and more severe risks than do market children. They suffer from physical violence and arrests. The number involved in prostitution is increasing and it is estimated that up to 90% of the street children sniff glue. Illiteracy is widespread and only around 8% of the street children in Honduras attend school, whereas over 30% of the market children in both Honduras and Nicaragua are enrolled in school. The lack of education among street and market children prevents them from earning a steady income in the future, and hence they are trapped in the vicious circle of poverty.”
Source: Forthcoming Report on Street Children in Central America, World Bank
Q: How many children are being used as soldiers?
A: Research conducted by the Quaker UN Office, Geneva, and Rädda Barnen Swedish Save the Children) suggests that more than 300,000 children under 18 years of age are actively participating in armed conflicts worldwide but this number is not static and cumulatively more than a million children may have suffered this abuse in the past decade. Hundreds of thousands more are enrolled in armed forces in countries not currently involved in armed conflict across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Q: Where are the worst abuses taking place?
A: The problem is most prevalent in Africa and Asia although many countries in Europe and the Americas still accept children into their armed forces. Most children taking part in armed conflict are between 15 and 18 years of age, but many are recruited from the age of 10 upwards, and the use of even younger children has been recorded
Questions and Answers; THE USE OF CHILDREN AS SOLDIERS, Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers Web-site, August 2002 http://www.child-soldiers.org/
Population: A Young World
„h The world's population reached six billion people in 1999
„h Almost a third are young people, 0 to 14 years old
„h One in every 5 people is an adolescent (between 10 & 19 years of age).
„h 85% of the 1.2 billion adolescents worldwide live in developing nations.
Youth and Poverty
„h Half of the world¡¦s 1 billion people living in poverty are young people.
„h 90 million children or almost 50% of all children in the Americas, live in poverty.
„h There are 100 million street children in the world, half of them in Latin America.
„h In Honduras & Nicaragua 8 to 12% of all children under 18 work and/or live in the streets.
„h The 1995 Luxembourg Income Study found the U.S. raises three to eight times more children in poverty than other Western nations. The U.S. has the largest and fastest-growing gap in income between its richest 5 percent and poorest 5 percent of any industrial society (U.S. News, 8/28/95).
Children at Work
„h 352 million children ages 5 to 17 are economically active
„h 211 million working children ages 5-14 worldwide
„h About 73 million are less than 10 years old
„h 2.5 million working children, or 2% of the total, are from OECD (¡§developed¡¨) nations
Child Labor
„h An estimated 186 million child laborers under 15 worldwide
„h About 110 million under 12 years of age
Children in Hazardous Work
„h 171 million children ages 5-17 were estimated to work in hazardous conditions
„h 55% of children under 12 work in hazardous situations
Children in Unconditional Worst Forms of Child Labor
„h An estimated 8.4 million children are involved in the worst forms of child labor as defined by ILO Convention 182, Art. 3:
„« 5.7 million children are in forced and bonded labor
„« 1.3 million children are ¡¥trafficked¡¨ (kidnapped, enslaved)
„« 1.8 million children are prostitutes or in pornography
„« 600,000 are engaged in other illicit activities
„« 300,000 children are soldiers
Adolescent Health
„h Every year an estimated one million young men and women between the ages of 10 and 19 lose their lives¡Xmostly through accidents, suicide, violence, pregnancy-related complications and illnesses that are either preventable or treatable. Millions more suffer chronic ill-health and disablement that may well endure a lifetime.
„h Even more importantly, most mortality in adulthood has its roots in the adolescent period. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 70% of premature deaths among adults are largely due to behavior initiated during adolescence. Tobacco use, for example, typically starts before the age of 20, and frequently leads to premature death later in life. HIV infection, which is often contracted in adolescence, leads to AIDs some years later.
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Leon Galindo
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Interesting! Nguyen Thi Lan Anh |
Thanks Leon!
I found it very helpful. A great source of information! There are lots of interesting figures in relations to young people.
L.A.
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