Two children playing on Harbour Street, downtown Kingston. A new study has found that child poverty levels in Jamaica are falling. - File

THE STUDY on child poverty and disparities in Jamaica has found that while child poverty has been declining with national poverty levels in general, the country is displaying a higher percentage of severe deprivation for health for children when compared to the rest of the region.

The percentage of children living below the poverty line stands at 14.5 per cent.

The report, which was launched last Wednesday at The Jamaica Pegasus, was done as part of the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities, sponsored by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children's Fund.

According to the study guide, "the global study seeks to respond to the need for a systematic inventory of the diverse arrange-ments by which economic and social policies benefit, or fail to benefit children, and advance, or fail to advance gender equality."

categories

The global study targeted seven dimensions of deprivation, however, the Jamaican study only focused on four.

These four were sanitation, water, education and health. In the four categories, the study found that the highest frequency of severe deprivation was estimated for health, nine per cent, followed by water, five per cent. No Jamaican children were reported to be severely deprived of education and only a marginal one per cent was severely deprived of sanitation.

In comparison to the region which stood at seven per cent, Jamaica's percentage for severe deprivation in health was nine. In all other areas, the island compared more favourably than the rest of the region.

According to the study, severe deprivation for health is defined as children under the age of five years who had not been immunised against any diseases, or young children who had recently suffered from an illness involving diarrhoea and had not received any medical advice or treatment.

At present, vaccination coverage averages 83 per cent, with the exception of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination coverage, which is at 77 per cent.

The maternal mortality rate now stands at 95 per 100,000 live births. The infant mortality rate has moved from 51.5 per thousand live births in 1960 to 25.7 per thousand in 2007.

Children aged birth 0 to 17 years made up 35 per cent of the Jamaican population of 2.6 million in 2005.

severe deprivation

The study indicated that children with a severe deprivation in any of the areas were more likely to be found in rural households, large households, households headed by persons with low levels of education and in households with vulnerable and unemployed persons.

Minister of Health Rudyard Spencer admitted that in the area of health, Jamaica has experienced some slippage regarding children. He, however, outlined several ways in which he think the country could move forward.

"Our targets remains 100 per cent, so we, therefore, need to strategise on reaching those children who are not yet covered," he said.

"We can make it mandatory for caregivers to produce the immuni-sation card up until age 18. We must seek to be prepared to offer immunisation services at every point of the health-care delivery system. (We must) use the laws of immunisation to prosecute persons who prevent children from being immunised.

"(We must) strengthen colla-boration with the Ministry of Education and the Early Childhood Commission to ensure that all children that are admitted to school are adequately vaccinated. Utilise public/private partnerships, espe-cially with health-care providers in the primary health-care setting to routinely provide immunisation services and undertake a public education programme," he added.

The minister said the rates of child and infant mortality are hard to cut because of the already comparably low levels at which they stand.

He also pointed to a shortage of midwives, which, according to health ministry statistics, stand at 47 per cent. He wants Jamaicans to know that the ministry currently pays the tuition fee for midwifery and wants them to take advantage.

Dr Michael Witter, who was the lead researcher on the study along with a group from the University of the West Indies, said that while there are legislative acts which protect the child, the imple-mentation of these policies and programmes could be strengthened.

Witter points out that Jamaica has had an extensive list of legislation which protects the rights of child. These are as new as the Child Care and Protection Act, which was passed in 2004, and the Birth and Death Act in 1881, which requires children to be registered in the first 14 days of life.

"When I look at other countries in the world, we are pretty good in Jamaica. There is a long list or policies for our children that has been developed in Jamaica in the wake of the commitment to the convention on the rights of the child. The problems might not be the policy so much, but the implementation of those policies," Witter said.

In light of the study, which used a multiple-cluster survey, Witter is calling on any future study to include other areas. He says the indicators for severe and less severe should be tailored so that they are uniquely interpreted for Jamaica. For example, he said that with Jamaica having high child enrolment in school, the study could look at the type of education children are receiving.

He said Jamaica should also try to measure other areas such as security for children.

Readers who are interested in seeing the study can view it online at http://www.unicef.org/jamaica/resources-16211.htm.

mark.beckford@gleanerjm.com