Tuesday, August 12, 2008

One in five kids threatened by poverty according to Czech Republic newspaper



Putting this up since it seems to be one of our underreported countries. A newspaper in the Czech Republic says that 18 percent of children in the country are threatened with poverty.

"Poverty in Czech conditions does not mean that children are hungry or that the shake of cold in shabby clothes. But their access to education, computers, quality education, after-school activities, developing their intellect, spending holidays with parents outside their homes and going to schools in nature with their fellow pupils is difficult," analyst Martina Hronova is quoted as saying.

She said poverty is also reflected in a worse quality of housing and the quality of food.

The problem of children's poverty has not yet been paid any special attention, there exist no projects to eliminate it, Pravo writes.

According to the EU criteria, people whose monthly income does not reach 60 percent of the most frequent income in the country, known as median, are considered poor, Pravo writes.

It adds that median ranges between 16,000 and 18,000 crowns gross monthly.

Housing is the biggest burden for 55 percent of poor families in the Czech Republic.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

1 comment:

Campany said...

Kale,
glad to see you have moderation
enabled; I couldn't find another method by which to reach you. I wanted to let you know about a new Brookings report on concentrated poverty.
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2008/08_concentrated_poverty_kneebone.aspx

The United States did not solve the problem of concentrated poverty in the 1990s. According to a new report by Brookings released today, trends in this new century demonstrate that many of the same communities that suffered in the 1970s and 1980s are suffering now from the economic downturn.



“Reversal of Fortune: A New Look at Concentrated Poverty in the 2000’s” measures the change in the rates concentrated working poverty nationally and in many of the largest metropolitan areas across the country, and ranks these urban center based on these changes.



Among the findings: In 2005, fully 30 percent of Fresno, California filers for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) lived in areas of high working poverty, and nine other metro areas, including New York and St. Louis, had rates of at least 20 percent. Yet, three metro areas—Sacramento, San Diego and Washington, D.C.—had concentrated working poverty rates of zero.

yes - I do work at Brookings, but I still thought you'd like to know.