There are 2.3 million children in Spain – 27.5 percent of the total – living under the poverty line, according to a study by UNICEF, the United Nations children’s fund.
The report, “La Infancia en España 2014” (Childhood in Spain 2014), released Jun. 24, found that the number of households with children where no adult is working increased 290 percent since 2007, the year before the global financial crisis broke out. Between 2007 and 2013 the total climbed from 325,000 to 943,000 families.
The unemployment rate in this country of 46.7 million people stands at 25.9 percent, according to the National Statistics Institute. Then there is the “working poor” who earn wages too low to cover mortgage payments or rent, utility bills and food.
The families of some 200,000 children in Spain can’t afford a meal based on beef, chicken or fish every two days, the NGO Educo reported on its website.
Caritas, a Catholic social assistance organisation, put the proportion of children under 18 in Spain living on the edge of social exclusion at 29.9 percent.
Child Poverty and Social Exclusion in Europe published by Save the Children in June put the proportion at 33.8 percent.
The budget earmarked for children in Spain fell 14.6 percent from 2010 to 2013, UNICEF reported. Cuts in public spending began during the administration of socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero but the biggest cutbacks in social expenditure in democracy in Spain have been applied since right-wing Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy took office.
“It’s a chronicle of impoverishment foretold,” economist Juan Torres López told IPS. He said the “policies involving steep cutbacks have dismantled the social services and basic collective assets,” turning Spain into “the country with the worst inequalities in Europe.” According to the economist, the government of right-wing Rajoy has adopted “inadequate, unfair and ineffective” measures.
The report, “La Infancia en España 2014” (Childhood in Spain 2014), released Jun. 24, found that the number of households with children where no adult is working increased 290 percent since 2007, the year before the global financial crisis broke out. Between 2007 and 2013 the total climbed from 325,000 to 943,000 families.
The unemployment rate in this country of 46.7 million people stands at 25.9 percent, according to the National Statistics Institute. Then there is the “working poor” who earn wages too low to cover mortgage payments or rent, utility bills and food.
The families of some 200,000 children in Spain can’t afford a meal based on beef, chicken or fish every two days, the NGO Educo reported on its website.
Caritas, a Catholic social assistance organisation, put the proportion of children under 18 in Spain living on the edge of social exclusion at 29.9 percent.
Child Poverty and Social Exclusion in Europe published by Save the Children in June put the proportion at 33.8 percent.
The budget earmarked for children in Spain fell 14.6 percent from 2010 to 2013, UNICEF reported. Cuts in public spending began during the administration of socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero but the biggest cutbacks in social expenditure in democracy in Spain have been applied since right-wing Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy took office.
“It’s a chronicle of impoverishment foretold,” economist Juan Torres López told IPS. He said the “policies involving steep cutbacks have dismantled the social services and basic collective assets,” turning Spain into “the country with the worst inequalities in Europe.” According to the economist, the government of right-wing Rajoy has adopted “inadequate, unfair and ineffective” measures.
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