Ensuring a safe and healthy living environment for children

(Baonghean) - During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh always had special affection for children and always asked agencies, organizations, cadres, party members and people of all walks of life to care for and give all the best to children. He once wrote "Children are like buds on a branch/Knowing how to eat, sleep, and study is good". Buds on a branch are innocent, immature, and have low resistance, so they need to be cherished, protected and sheltered. With "buds on a branch", we should not ask for much, just need the children to do very simple things "Knowing how to eat, sleep, and study" is enough.

In fact, our Party, State and the whole society have always had policies and regimes that pay special attention to children. However, in today's life, although it has progressed and is much more complete than before, there are still unhappy and unfortunate things happening to children. The reality is that not all children are protected and sheltered from dangers so that they can innocently, naturally and comfortably perform their duties at their age, which are eating, sleeping and studying. Perhaps that is why this year's Month of Action for Children has the theme "Acting for a society without violence and without child abuse".

The Party, the State and the whole society have always had policies and regimes that give special attention to children. Illustration photo

According to data compiled from 63 provinces and cities, on average, there are about 1,000 cases of physical abuse of children each year. Of these, nearly 66% are cases of child sexual abuse. Many new forms have appeared, such as sexual abuse of male children, the appearance of foreign criminals, and sexual abuse of children via the internet.

And more dangerous than that, abuse happens everywhere, anytime, very unpredictable, difficult to prevent. Child abuse cases brought to trial in recent times clearly show that reality. Not only being abused, children today also have to face many other dangers and insecurities. The most obvious is drowning accidents. This is one of the 10 types of accidents that cause the most deaths for children in many countries. In our country, every year, over 6,000 children die from drowning (accounting for nearly 50% of the total number of children who die from accidents and injuries nationwide). Nghe An is one of 15 provinces and cities with the highest number of children drowning nationwide. This figure not only shows the very high number of children's lives lost, but also sounds the alarm that the risk of death due to drowning has been at an alarming level for the whole society... In addition, children are also victims of violence in the family and in society.

Many children are exploited or forced to become street children, beggars, shoe shiners, lottery ticket sellers... on the streets to enrich some unscrupulous herders. Many children become involuntary laborers in processing factories in some big cities. And a large number of them are struggling with their families in hard work to maintain their lives. It is estimated that about 9.6% of children from 5 to 17 years old in our country are doing hard labor. Of these, about 1/3 of child laborers work more than 42 hours/week. Long working hours have affected children's learning, because many of them are currently not going to school. The number of children in special circumstances, including children who have to work early, is a challenge for Vietnam, even though the rate of child labor in our country is lower than the general rate of the world. This is an issue that needs to be addressed and resolved, because according to the assessment of the International Labor Organization - ILO, "Child labor needs to be eliminated because it takes away the childhood, potential and dignity of children, negatively affecting their physical and mental development."

The cause of the above situation, according to the assessment of experts and some research works in this field, is mainly due to the economic difficulties of a part of families leading to the neglect and abandonment of children, which is a favorable condition for the emergence of acts of abuse, sexual abuse, violence, exploitation of children or children breaking the law. On the other hand, the increased risk of children being abused and abused is partly due to the change in social values, pragmatic lifestyle, over-emphasis on money and material things; the impact of movies, violence, pornography is increasingly difficult to control; the pressure on psychological life in families and society is increasing; the situation of family divorce and separation leads to psychological trauma, "deviant" behavior in children and adults, children are at high risk of being abandoned, wandering, working for a living, breaking the law, being abused and abused.

Meanwhile, social services, especially child protection services, have not kept up with the changes in society and the needs of families, caregivers and children. Therefore, the immediate task is to focus on creating a safe and healthy living environment for children by raising awareness and social responsibility in implementing children's rights. Disseminate and educate the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's laws and the Government's directives and programs on child care and protection so that authorities and people know and implement them. At the same time, constantly improve the legal system on child care and protection in many areas, attracting the attention of the whole society to this work. And most importantly, mobilizing the entire political system, with the core being the Party committees and authorities, in conjunction with families and society, to focus on achieving the goals of child care, education and protection, effectively implementing policies, programs, and building campaigns to improve living conditions, create opportunities and ensure that all children live in a safe, healthy environment and develop comprehensively. These tasks need to be carried out regularly, long-term and substantially, not just following the trend and only being wrapped up in the Month of Action for Children.

Duy Huong