How many children live at risk of poverty in the different communities of Spain? How many babies feed on exclusive breastfeeding? How many children are victims of abuse? How has obesity evolved in recent years? These and other questions are answered in the new web "Children in data", which aims to strengthen the rights of children thanks to transparency.
This is a project of the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality and the Spanish Committee of UNICEF to consult the main data available on the situation of Children in Spain and the Autonomous Communities, according to data from various official sources verified, such as WHO , the Ministry of Interior ...
It is an easy-to-use, interactive website, with multiple data by communities, on maps, graphs and tables, in some cases with the evolution of figures in recent years and that collects more than 50 indicators on child welfare in Spain, helping to detect problems and analyze their evolution.
With "Childhood in data" the application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Spain is sought and responds to the recommendation of the Committee on the Rights of the Child to work on collecting data (already denounced the lack of consistent and periodic information that was in relationship to the situation of children in the country, both nationally and regionally).
But all this would be in a simple collection of figures if, apart from placing ourselves in front of a very crude reality at times, nothing else is done. That is, if breastfeeding rates have to be increased, how can the government act? How to stop childhood obesity or prevent abuse? How to increase healthy habits among children?
Some interesting facts
In the breastfeeding mapIf we look at the 2006 data, we see that Spain is below the European average in terms of babies who are breastfeeding exclusively at six months, with figures as low as 21% of Asturias (compared to 54% of The Rioja). However, in the graph that shows the last years, it is observed that the figures improve and have been rising since 2006, going from an average of 38% to 47% in 2011.
Some time ago we told you that 33.8% of children live at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Spain and on this website we see that the figure has increased to 35.8%, being in the Region of Murcia more than 56 % and in communities like Andalusia up to 51%.
On the other hand, just as overweight is an issue in which we continue to increase figures, children who have died in traffic accidents have been less and less for years, a hopeful decline.
We continue to be surprised (and saddened) by the data on child abuse, since about five thousand children were subjected to family violence last year in Spain, according to the Interior Ministry. And this is only visible data, but how much invisible violence remains unquantified?
Anyway, We hope that the new tool "Childhood in data" serves to make visible the most vulnerable children, thus fulfilling its objective and that all the information leads to new effective public policies to improve the living conditions of children and that their rights are fulfilled.
Official Site | Childhood in data
Photo | iStock
In Babies and more | Unicef proposes a State Pact for Children in Spain, do you join ?, Investing in childhood is investing in education, don't politicians see it or don't they care?
