The Global Crisis Facing Children: A Grim Reality

The United Nations Children’s Fund, in its report The State of the World’s Children 2000, says that every day, about 30,500 children under five die from preventable causes. The Indian Express reports that in the last decade, two million children have been killed and six million injured or disabled in wars, with many more suffering human rights abuses. Over 15 million children are refugees, and more than a million have lost their parents or become orphans. The report also mentions that at least 250 million children aged 5 to 14 are forced to work, with 20 percent in dangerous conditions. Around a million children are forced into prostitution, and 250,000 are infected with HIV each month. Additionally, 130 million children, mostly girls, do not go to school.