Zaragoza (EFE).- The institution of the Justice of Aragon has presented this Tuesday its Annual Report on Childhood and Adolescence in which it warns of the increase in child poverty, which affects one in four children in the Community, something that ” a society like the Spanish cannot afford it”.
The relative poverty rate for minors was almost 25% in 2021, compared to that registered in 2020, which was 21.34%, as stated in this report. The lieutenant of Justice, Javier Hernández, and the advisor responsible for Minors of the institution, Andrés Esteban, have delivered it to the president of the Cortes of Aragon, Javier Sada.
Although the data is better when compared to that of Spain, as the institution has pointed out, it is the second highest rate in the last eight years and implies that one in four minors is below the poverty line in Aragon. .
“We cannot congratulate ourselves on being better than the State when there are still levels of poverty,” Hernández pointed out in a situation in which more than a quarter of Aragonese households cannot meet unforeseen expenses, with a strong impact on the minors who are part of these families.
In addition, as Esteban has indicated, this poverty is cumulative and is later associated with school failure, obesity, illness or job insecurity, that is, “it will build a society in a profoundly unequal way.”
The territorial inequality of poverty
Esteban has also highlighted the “territorial inequality” existing in Aragon, with populations with a relative poverty rate above 40%, such as Épila, Caspe or Ricla, and others with rates below 15%, such as María de Huerva or Villanueva de Galician.
“In this section, Aragon goes backwards in addressing child poverty, which is increasing and affects one in four less in Aragon”, has settled on a matter of particular concern to the institution, which calls for “putting children and girls more in the center”.
Another worrying aspect is the decrease in the population under 18 years of age in Aragon, with a drop of 1,725 people compared to the figures for 2021. “We have fewer and fewer children and adolescents in our community, with very worrying numbers. 30% fewer children under one year of age than a decade ago are beginning to be a pyramid with practically no base”, Hernández indicated for his part.
Protection of Minors or disability, among the most common complaints
The institution’s analysis also shows that in 2022 complaints referring to childhood and adolescence have grown by 20%, with family relationships, disability and the Child Protection System as the most common reasons.
This last point is related to the fact that “more minors have been withdrawn in situations of helplessness”, but as Esteban warns “there are families that do not feel well treated or feel that they are not heard by the administration”.
As a positive point, they have highlighted the situation of the residential reception centers in Aragon, which they visit every year to find out their needs and meet with the minors.
“A few years ago, the media reported a social alarm related to young migrants. Today that alarm is not raised and we want to value the fact that these young migrants, thanks to the reform of the immigration regulations, are largely working and are support of Aragonese society. And in many centers there are boys and girls who are studying and working”, said Esteban, who believes that society’s vision of these young people has changed.
The role of society in foster care
They do warn that the placements are not well distributed, since those in foster care remain at 27% and those in residential centers remain at 73%, when the legal modifications of 2015 called for life to be tended with families. In this sense, they have recalled that “it is not only the role of the administration, but of Aragonese society”.
The report highlights the reception of families of refugees from Ukraine, which has revealed the “reception capacity of Aragonese society and in which different public administrations have participated, as well as social entities and volunteers”.
In disability, there are problems of access to resources, while they also warn of the situation in the Citizenship and Social Rights Early Care Program, with waiting lists of 400 boys and girls from zero to six years of age, at a time of the life in which “ten months in a child who is two years old is not the same as an adult”.
The deficit of professionals has received complaints both in child and adolescent mental health and in the care of Students with Special Educational Needs “to make the right to inclusive education a reality.” As the institution has reported, complaints related to cases of possible bullying have been filed, given the disagreement with the actions of educational centers in tackling these situations or the way of applying the protocols established by the Government of Aragon, in a context in which the number of harassed students increases, as confirmed by the Observatory of School Bullying in Aragon.
Complaints in Education and Health
Likewise, complaints continue about the school transport service, which affects students from rural areas, some of them with disabilities, and “conditions their right to access education, as established by law.”
Complaints related to Health, focused on delays in obtaining an appointment with Pediatrics, have decreased, although the lack of coverage of midwife and pediatrician positions in rural areas is recurrent, as well as the difficulties in accessing specialized Ophthalmology care. and hemodialysis treatment.
With the data provided by this study, the Justice of Aragon has requested a series of measures from the different departments of the Government of Aragon that concern children and has shown that at this time there is no administrative body in the Community dedicated to childhood and that addresses it transversally.