Inter Press Service - April 29, 2004
Raul Pierri

Unfortunately, the sight of children forced to work and panhandle on the streets to help support their families has become more and more common in this country that was once known as the Switzerland of South America.

In the morning the boys attend school (classes are held in two shifts in Uruguay). But in the afternoon, rain or shine, they head downtown to 18 de Julio, Montevideo's main avenue, to earn a few pesos that they take home to their mother in their shack in one of the city's slums.

Most of the bus companies and the vast majority of drivers allow street vendors to hawk their wares on their vehicles.

The typical modus operandi of the children who hop on and off the buses between stops is to hand out calendar or prayer cards, or small pieces of paper explaining their difficult situation -- "my father is unemployed/I have no father", "I have five siblings", etc -- and then pass through again to pick up the unsold cards or the little papers, along with the donations from the bus riders.

"Papa isn't around" and Christian and his brother have to go out and make money so the family can eat, he explains, without providing further details, but giving a glimpse into his world through his friendly eyes.

"Mama is the only one who knows how to cook, so she cooks for all of us," he adds, cutting short the chat with IPS to climb onto a bus that pulls up, letting off three public school children in shiny white uniforms. In his disheveled, worn-out clothing, he walks past them and continues on his way, to see what the afternoon will bring.

Child poverty has risen steadily in Uruguay over the past two decades, partly because governments have failed to take advantage of the moments when the economy was relatively strong, according to a new report by UNICEF, the United Nations children's fund.

In 1986, there were two children living in poverty for every poor adult over 65. In 1995 that ratio climbed to seven poor children for every impoverished elderly person, and in 2003 to nine children per poor senior citizen, according to the 'Observatory of the rights of children and adolescents in Uruguay', presented by UNICEF in Montevideo on Wednesday.

In 2002, 46.6 percent of children under six were living in poor households. That means 104,000 children under six lack sufficient access to food and basic goods and services in this country of 3.3 million, located between Brazil and Argentina.

In 2002, 23.7 percent of the population was living in poverty.

"In Uruguay, poverty tends to be concentrated among the youngest segments of the population, particularly children," says the report, which largely holds responsible the conservative governments that have ruled the country since the end of the 1973-1985 military dictatorship.

Street children "and child labour are the visible faces of poverty that demand a more decisive and innovative response that would not only address the immediate problems but would put in place more solid and lasting social protection networks," the report adds.

UNICEF maintains that the increase in child poverty cannot be blamed exclusively on the latest economic crises, like the one that broke out in 2002 -- one of the worst in the history of the country. It notes that the situation in which nearly half of all children and adolescents live in poverty dates back to over two decades.

Uruguay suffered a recession between 1999 and 2001, which deepened into outright crisis in 2002, when neighbouring Argentina -- to whose economy Uruguay is inextricably tied -- experienced economic and political meltdown.

In Uruguay, wages, exports and international reserves plunged, the financial system collapsed, and unemployment soared to 17 percent, the highest rate since 1985.

Unemployment now stands at around 14 percent.

The country "failed to take advantage of the best economic moments of the 1990s to reduce the gap between child poverty and poverty among elderly adults. Indeed, it was not only unable to reduce that disparity, but the inequality between generations actually increased," says UNICEF.

Some aspects of the study were criticised as "partial" by the head of the Uruguayan government's technical advisory body on social policy, Tabare Vera.

"When the report apparently links the rise in child poverty to the economic opening (of the 1990s), a clarification should be made...This did not occur in a neutral terrain, and it is not the first time that something like this appears in a UNICEF document. In the future, there should be more clarification, or greater prudence," said Vera at the presentation of the report.

The official complained that the study was making an incursion into the terrain of economic policy, and lamented that it did not put an emphasis on the improvements "that are due to long-term" government policies.

"This is one of the limitations of the study," argued Vera. "It is also good to learn from our successes."

But the representative of UNICEF in Uruguay, Anne Beathe Jensen, told IPS that "UNICEF has no intention of expressing opinions on economic policy.

"That is not in the report. The only thing stated is a proven fact: that real improvements were not achieved during the period of economic liberalisation. We believe that proactive policies on the part of the government, and better distribution (of income), are necessary," she added.

Jensen pointed out that Uruguay ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, but that more than a decade later, there are still situations that compromise the full exercise of the rights of children.

"The social policies and programmes aimed at children ensure their survival, but do not adequately cover the needs for the well-being of all children and adolescents," says the report.

UNICEF also notes that one out of six adolescents in Uruguay has dropped out of school. "There is a marked relationship between adolescent work and school desertion: seven of every 10 adolescents who work do not attend school," says the study.

The report also focused on other aspects of the situation of children and adolescents in Uruguay, such as mortality rates, nutrition, health and educational coverage, teen pregnancy and the HIV/AIDS rate.

The dean of the department of social science and communications in the Catholic University of Uruguay, Cecilia Zaffaroni, said the rise in child poverty is also due to changes in the job market.

More flexible labour laws have made jobs "much more precarious today, and there are fewer social safety networks. That also provokes changes in families," said Zaffaroni.

The growing obstacles faced by heads of households when it comes to finding employment means many children have to work in the streets to help feed their families, she said.

That is the case of Andres, 10, and his friend Johnatan, 9, who sing together in buses in the capital in exchange for a few coins.

"I have a twin sister who sells poems in buses, and a 20-year-old brother who collects cardboard from garbage cans to sell. I live with my mom and dad," says Andr s at the bus stop, as he keeps an eye out for the next bus.

Andres and Johnatan have been singing together "for around two years." They begin at noon, after school lets out. They say they don't always hand over everything they earn to their parents, but sometimes have a bite to eat downtown.

Neither of them likes school, and their attention seems to be focused on the arrival of the next bus and on how much they will earn today. But they have their dreams, of course: someday they will sing on stage.

***** + UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org/)

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