More needs to be done for our children

SECTION 28 of the constitution which addresses children’s rights in South Africa, constitutes in effect a mini-charter for children, who are defined as persons under 18 years of age.

Section 28 sets out a spectrum of rights providing for the comprehensive protection for children that are supplementary to the other rights furnished by the rest of the Bill of Rights. These rights include, according to section 28(1), the right of every child inter alia to:

Family care care or important parental Basic nutrition, shelter, basic health care services and social services Be protected from maltreatment, neglect abuse or degradation. This provision indicates that as a nation we have set out in theory in an exemplary manner how children need to be cared for. However, in practice, as the discussion below will indicate, this is most certainly not the position. Very much more is required.

In an excellent article first published in The Conversation on the effect of poverty on children, Julian May and Stephen Devereux point out in no uncertain terms that in fact one in every four children in South Africa go hungry each day.

This should be a national concern, and they indicate that if nothing is done the situation and all its dire consequences for our nation will deteriorate.

The condition of chronic malnutrition in 27.4% of South African children under the age of 5 shows they are too short and suffer from what is known as stunting. This is a long-term indicator of under-nutrition.

Nutrition is of paramount importance for children as they develop in their mother’s womb and during the first two years of their life. If deprived during this time, the damage from lack of growth is irreversible. By its very nature stunting must of necessity be of national concern.

Furthermore, the stunting statistic at 27.4%, according to the 2016 Demographic and Health Survey, is the same as it was in the previous survey which was conducted in 2003. Therefore, unfortunately, stunting is not on the decline and there are indications that if the problem is not addressed meaningfully, it will rise.

Poverty

This serious problem has its roots in both poverty and malnutrition. Both need to be addressed in a determined manner with effective strategies and interventions.

Although South Africa has a social grant system, which includes child grant support, which reaches 12 million, with a monthly payout of R380 per child, it is manifestly insufficient to meet nutrition needs that children have and requires a substantial increase.

Furthermore, for the grant to have a greater impact on health of young children, it needs to be supplemented by a basic income grant, or family grants such as Brazil’s Bolsa Familia.

A basic income grant is a measure that could give effect to the constitutional requirement to cater for the immediate basic needs of an estimated 14 million people who are living below the poverty datum line in South Africa. It is submitted that it is a constitutional imperative that some meaningful measure of access to social security is required for these persons and their children.

It can be argued that at this time when fiscal discipline and austerity is the order of the day, this kind of grant is unaffordable. However, the grant could be introduced incrementally over a period of five years.

This needs to be addressed both educationally and scientifically. Until recently, South Africa had one of the lowest rates of exclusive breastfeeding. The demographic health survey indicates that the figure has risen fourfold from 8% in 2003 to 32% in 2016. This is extremely encouraging and indicates that education and social intervention can indeed make a difference.

More needs to be done to improve the nutritional quality of food. South Africa as a country produces sufficient food and has abundant scientific knowledge to produce, process and distribute safe and healthy food for all our children in need.

It requires the administrative and political will to develop and sustain the programmes required in urban and rural areas.

This is a challenge not only to government but to organisations of civil societies, both religious and secular. NGOs, such as Feed the Babies, have a fundamental contribution to make. The government needs, however, to co-ordinate the activities of such NGO’s to ensure that with its own programmes they have an optimum outreach.

During the long and dark years of colonialism and apartheid, involving unconscionable systems of migrant labour, children were subject to profound suffering. They were forced to make sacrifices for the realisation of a new and just South Africa, epitomised by their conduct during the tragic Soweto disturbance in 1976 and 1977.

At this juncture of our post-apartheid history we dare not neglect our responsibility morally, socially and politically to the children of South Africa.

Unfortunately, the government and the ANC appear to have become obsessed with the problems relating to the leadership of President (Jacob) Zuma and serious allegations of corruption and maladministration. As a result, other seminal issues such as child care and hunger caused by poverty are not being meaningfully addressed.

Devenish is Emeritus Professor at UKZN and one of the scholars who assisted in drafting the interim constitution in 1993.