La Jornada: Fernando Camacho Servín
Mexico is a country where children have worse living conditions, particularly in early childhood (birth to five years), as the authorities have not been capable of guaranteeing minimum health, education and safety, warned specialists of the Alliance for the Rights of Children and Adolescents in Mexico.
During the presentation of the "Index of the Rights of Girls and Boys: Removing the Challenges for Mexican Childhoods," Saúl Arellano, director of the Mexico Social organization, explained that in the preparation of this document nineteen variables in five thematic areas were taken into account--the right to life, education, health and nutrition, and [the problem of] violence--with the aim of assessing the living conditions of children between zero and five years.
One of the main conclusions of the study, he said, is that Mexico remains a country "inappropriate" for childhood, because it is "profoundly unequal and violent", especially against the most vulnerable.
One example, said the expert, is that about 30 thousand children die each year from preventable diseases territory before reaching their first birthday, especially in rural states such as Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, Tlaxcala and Puebla. This situation is worse in rural households where an indigenous language is spoken, whose children are 50 percent more likely to die compared to those in urban areas.
Average Score of 5
On a scale of 1 to 10, Mexico has an overall average score of five, although in some areas it has an even lower rating, such as in health (4.4) and education (4.1).
"Mexico has made some progress, but it is very slow and uneven. It is urgent to move at a faster pace to end the structural and institutional violence against children," Arellano emphasized.
Monica González, an academic with the Institute of Legal Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico [UNAM], lamented that on the eve of Children's Day there is little to celebrate. The rights of children are not in the center of the national agenda and, therefore, there is a minimum level of compliance and enforcement.
Alfonso Poiré, from the Save the Children organization, believes that in Mexico there is a "systematic and structural" denial of children's basic guarantees and that children represent a sector invisible and profoundly attacked.
Alfonso Poiré, from the Save the Children organization, believes that in Mexico there is a "systematic and structural" denial of children's basic guarantees and that children represent a sector invisible and profoundly attacked.
Nashieli Ramírez, director of the Ririki Social Intervention organization, stressed that a majority of the 13 million people between zero and five years (nearly 10 percent) are abandoned by the government, even though at that stage of life 90 percent of brain structure and the basis of a person's character and personality are formed. Spanish original