Laptop and school lunch not enough to improve children in poverty's outlook on life
The well-being and development of children growing up in poverty remain “severely compromised” despite countless initiatives to help them, including school breakfasts, laptops, bicycles, and sports memberships. These initiatives are too fractured to give these kids the structural support needed to improve their outlook on life, Children’s Ombudsman Margrite Kalverboer concluded after measuring the well-being of children in poverty over the past ten years.
“We can no longer settle for one-off solutions. We need a comprehensive child poverty policy that provides structural support to families and prioritizes children’s development,” Kalverboer said.
One in 28 children in the Netherlands lives in poverty. That means that, on average, one child per class worries about their parents’ stress levels and being able to afford school trips, sports participation, food, or even rent. “These children start life at a disadvantage. Their development is severely compromised by constant stress, insufficient attention at home, and a lack of opportunities,’ the Children’s Ombudsman said.
Despite all the provisions, the research shows that children in poverty have consistently rated their lives lower than their peers with sufficient income at home over the years. They also rate the quality of their life, based on 14 environmental conditions linked to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, lower than children not living in poverty.
The Ombudsman called it “alarming” that children who rate their lives a five or lower “score unprecedentedly low” on several of the 14 environmental conditions crucial to their development. “This means that their quality of life is so low that their well-being and future prospects are seriously jeopardized. The children’s rights of these children are therefore under severe pressure.”
According to the Children’s Ombudsman, the results of this study show that the Dutch childhood poverty policy is far from sufficient. She called on the caretaker Cabinet and politicians as a whole to tackle child poverty more decisively. She advised the national government to take the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a basis and translate it into policy that encompasses all aspects of children’s lives.
In the current approach, municipalities choose their own approaches and priorities, risking that children in one town receive fewer opportunities than those in another. Stand-alone provisions like providing a bicycle or breakfast at school are valuable, but they do not solve the core problem, the Ombudsman said. “Only a combination of long-term solutions and individual provisions can prevent thousands of children in the Netherlands from spending their childhoods in constant uncertainty.”
It’s time to ensure “that children receive the security, safety, and opportunities they deserve,” Kalverboer said.
