Early childhood in Mexico, political debt

In Mexico there are 12.5 million girls and boys from zero to six years old, and one in 10 lives in extreme poverty, while 1.3 million face chronic malnutrition.

According to the Pact for Early Childhood (PPI), made up of 500 NGOs, there is a great debt with early childhood because the figures are worrying: 60% do not have a complete vaccination schedule.

18% do not have a birth certificate; From 2010 to 2022, 322 thousand children under one year old died from illnesses, injuries or homicides, while from 2020 to 2023, 3 thousand 332 children under six years old were reported missing, of which 1,083 are still absent.

Also, of every thousand babies born alive, 13 die before reaching one year of age, while 14 girls and boys per thousand die before reaching the age of five.

Since 2016, the PPI – which initially included 40 NGOs – has pushed in each federal election for candidates to sign the Pact for Early Childhood to guarantee the care and rights of girls and boys from zero to six years old.

This Monday, the candidates and the candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, Xóchitl Gálvez, for the Fuerza y ​​Corazón por México alliance; Claudia Sheinbaum, from Let’s Continue Making History, and Emecista Jorge Álvarez will sign the Pact for Early Childhood to commit to working for that population sector if they win in the next elections on June 2.

In addition, the candidates for the Head of Government of Mexico City, Santiago Taboada, from the PAN-PRI-PRD alliance, will sign the document; Clara Brugada, from the Morena, PT and Verde Ecologista coalition, and the candidate of the orange party, Salomón Chertorivski.

The NGO also seeks that the more than 20 thousand registered candidates in the National Electoral Institute (INE) to be elected to a popularly elected position, whether governorships, deputations and senatorial offices, and municipal presidencies, also sign the pact through its website.

The commitment is made up of 12 goals that are: increasing breastfeeding in the first hour of life to 75% and exclusive breastfeeding to 50% in girls and boys under six months of age; ensure that 90% of girls and boys aged one and two receive all the vaccines they are entitled to; apply neonatal screening to at least 90% of newborns; provide specialized care based on diagnosis, and increase coverage in education and health services for girls and boys with disabilities to 80%.

Besides, increase to 90% girls and boys under five years of age with adequate early childhood development and to 50% the coverage of annual development evaluations; ensure that 20% of girls and boys under three years of age receive initial education in any of its modalities; reach 30% of families with girls and boys under six years of age with parenting skills programs for loving and sensitive parenting.

And ensure that 90% of the girls and boys are registered in the Civil Registry before turning one year old and that at five years old they are all registered; advance in the eradication of all forms of violence against children, by reducing the use of violent methods of discipline by 20% and sexual violence and cases of disappearances of girls and boys under six years of age by 50%; increase by 10% the participation of mothers and fathers in play activities with their daughters and sons under five years of age, as well as increase the availability, access and quality of public spaces for early childhood play.

Aranzazú Alonso, executive director and general coordinator of the Pact for Early Childhood, tells EL UNIVERSAL that, for the first time in the presidential debate, on April 8, Claudia, Xóchitl and Jorge spoke about early childhood, which represented a milestone, because in none of the previous debates “the words early childhood had been pronounced in all their letters”.

“This tells us that gradually the work of civil society has been achieving that within the language and imagination of those who want to govern the country, early childhood is already being configured as an issue,” he highlights.

However, it states that early childhood does not occupy the priority in the presidential proposals that it should have for the development and construction of a more peaceful, more productive and healthier society.

“During the first years of life, people’s brain architecture is formed. That is, when we are born our brain is not fully developed. It is the opportunities, conditions and interactions that we have when we are babies that will determine the architecture of our brain “, Explain.

The general coordinator of the PPI explains that human beings “are programmed, wired, let’s put it that way, for human interaction. When these interactions occur, neurons connect and neurological circuits are formed that are responsible for things as essential, such as sight, hearing or taste, and for things as complex, as speech, problem solving, resilience or empathy”.

It specifies that their capacities and abilities for the rest of their lives will depend on the type of conditions that children under six years of age experience.

“They are like the foundations of a house. If those foundations are solid, the house will be safer,” he says.

He mentions that according to James Heckman, Nobel Prize winner in Economics in 2000, The best investment that all countries can make is in developing the capabilities of girls and boys in their first years of life.

“In Latin America there are nations that have given great importance to early childhood policies. For example, Chile and Colombia, which for decades have prioritized early childhood and increased the amount of public investment.”

He explains that in Mexico we are still very far from early childhood being a significant investment: “The program through which transfers are allocated for older adults in the country has more resources than the total investments that the federal government has for early childhood.

“That is to say, there is a very important generational imbalance in current policy, because we are allocating a good part of our social development resources to older adults, without there being a correspondence or proportion with what we are investing in girls and boys in early childhood. “.

Aranzazu Alonso emphasizes that one of the calls made by the PPI is that more resources be allocated for the comprehensive care of boys and girls from zero to six years old.because it explains that these resources will have effects in the short, medium and long terms.

“If we invest in early childhood, we will have fewer diseases, less mortality, better child development rates, etc.

“But if we look at it in the long term, what the evidence shows is that these girls and boys who receive comprehensive care in early childhood will have more schooling, better IQ, better performance on math and reading tests, more likely to of attending college, a better chance of engaging in criminal activities, higher wages, and a greater likelihood of facing poverty,” he highlights.

Data

60% of boys and girls from zero to six years old in Mexico do not have a complete vaccination schedule.

3,332 children under six years of age were reported missing from 2020 to 2023; 1,083 are still absent.