Presidents agree to protect children; they sign treaty for early childhood

Children from zero to six years old should have the right to spend more time playing with their mothers and fathers and do so in safe and dignified public spaces, such as parks, establishes one of the 12 points of the Pact for Early Childhood, signed by the candidates. for president, Claudia Sheinbaum, Xóchitl Gálvez y Jorge Álvarez Máynez.

This agreement was designed by more than 500 institutions, including civil society organizations, companies, universities, caregivers of minors, and points out that children’s brains develop from zero to six years of age.

Guaranteed food, breastfeeding, housing, medicines and the right to vaccines, breastfeeding for at least six months, the right to have a caregiver who looks after their well-being, that no one hurt them, quality education, are some of the goals established by the Pact.

Aranzazu Alonso, general coordinator and executive director of the Pact for Early Childhood, explained that nutrition, safe environments and the right to health must be inalienable guarantees for children.

The Pact for Early Childhood (PPI) seeks to benefit the 12.4 million girls and boys under 6 years of age in Mexico, of which a large percentage are in poverty, suffer from anemia or do not have access to health services.

With this signature, the candidates for the Presidency and the Government of Mexico City committed that, if they win the position, they will work together with the Pact for Early Childhood (the organizations it represents: academia, business, mothers and parents and caregivers) to achieve compliance with the 12 Goals of the Pact.

In Mexico, almost 6 million girls and boys under 6 years of age (48.14%) remain in poverty and 1.4 million (11.58%) remain in extreme poverty, according to the study presented to the candidates, based on figures from Coneval, highlighting the lack of access to health services, which increased between 2020 and 2022, going from 31.2% to 45.9%.

Each and every one of us gathered here can do something to concretely improve the situation of girls and boys under six years of age in Mexico. But what is indisputable is that this effort requires, not only the conviction of the social, academic and business sector, but also decisive, sustained and effective action by those who govern us, those who legislate and those who administer justice,” said Aranzazu. Alonso.

At this event, the study The Pending Debt: Access to Rights was presented. Analysis of Multidimensional Poverty in Early Childhood, Mexico 2018-2022, with national-level data from the results of the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval).

Probably some of these deficiencies are not palpable visually, only until they are presented in their most extreme form; For example, the lack of access to nutritious and quality food is physically evident until a girl or boy presents a case of chronic malnutrition, which in Mexico occurs in approximately 1.3 million girls and boys under 5 years of age, in addition to 700 thousand girls and boys with anemia, according to data from ENSANUT,” highlighted researcher Ixchel Beltrán, PPI researcher.

The study indicates that between 2020 and 2022, poverty in early childhood decreased by an average of 6.20%, going from 54.3% to 48.1%; but extreme poverty only went from 11.8% to 11.6%.

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The lack of access to health services in children under 6 years of age increased between 2020 and 2022, going from 31.2% to 45.9%. The lack of access to social security is very high in girls and boys in early childhood, affecting 6 out of 10 (59.3%).

The educational gap is worsening in the northern entities. The highest percentages are found in Chihuahua (21.90%), Baja California (21.85%), Sonora (18.06%), Coahuila (17.41%) and Tamaulipas (17.16%).

A total of 13 entities are above the national percentage of children under six years of age in poverty. In Chiapas, eight out of every ten girls and boys are in poverty, in Guerrero, Oaxaca and Puebla there are seven and in Veracruz, six.

At the national level, one in ten (11.58%) girls and boys under six years of age are in a situation of extreme poverty and in some entities it worsens, such as Chiapas (39.69%), Guerrero (30.39%), Oaxaca (25.57% ), Veracruz (19.97%) and Tabasco (18.77%).

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