Nearly 400,000 Catalan boys and girls live in vulnerable situations. To break the circle of vulnerability, the Catalan union ombudsman, Esther Giménez-Salinas, presented this Monday to the president of the Parliament, Anna Erra, the Report on children’s rights for 2023, which includes a dozen proposals. among which it is contemplated that children have a type of income that guarantees their economic sufficiency. Also that their housing be assured and that their schooling from 0 to 3 years old be prioritized, among other measures.
74.3% of children in a situation of severe material deprivation do not benefit from the guaranteed citizen income (RGC), according to the report presented by the trustee. “25% of vulnerable children are left out of this aid and the minimum vital income,” Giménez-Salinas detailed. That is why one of the measures that she proposes to reverse the vulnerability of this sector of children is to determine the minimum economic sufficiency income that any family needs to guarantee that a child has the minimum needs covered. In this sense, she considers that it is necessary for the RGC to have a specific supplement for dependent children, since this aid provides additional resources based on the number of members a family has, but “it does not positively discriminate against children.”
500 families with children live in pensions
Guaranteeing housing is another crucial aspect for Giménez-Salinas. The report details that there is currently not enough social housing to cover the needs of families with children in a residential emergency situation. Currently around 2,000 families in Catalonia are waiting to be assigned emergency housing and around 500 live and wait in boarding houses or other temporary housing.
The union has greatly insisted on “intensive” support for families to help prevent risk situations because sometimes “negligent behavior” occurs that could be avoided if the parents or guardians are accompanied. He has also highlighted the importance of improving waiting lists to treat mental health problems. Giménez-Salinas has stressed that “everything we do to improve childhood has an impact on adolescence and throughout life.”
The union criticizes the linear investment made of resources. An example of this would be the help of 100 euros for school supplies or the reduction of ratios that normally go to the centers with the highest demand.
Promote schooling from 0 to 3 years
Educational policies must also be rethought for the trustee, who considers that the increase in investment has not been used sufficiently to guarantee a more equitable education financing model. And in this sense, another of the intervention measures proposed is to prioritize schooling from 0 to 3 years old so that vulnerable students already have access to this first level of education. The data from the report presented indicates that, for example, only 14.9% of children in this age group (0-3) of foreign nationality are enrolled in school compared to 52.4% of those of Spanish nationality. According to the report, the need for greater educational investment is also evidenced by the fact that 48.2% of children in vulnerable situations have lower performance in skills tests compared to 10.5% of children in a better social position.
Improving access to educational leisure is another crucial aspect to reduce vulnerability (26.8% of disadvantaged children participate in non-sports activities, while 54.9% of boys and girls from more advantaged backgrounds do so. ) for which it considers that it is necessary to deploy aid for leisure to guarantee its access.