The Impact of Poverty and Malnutrition on Children in the Philippines - Essay Example

The impact of Poverty and Malnutrition on Children in the Philippines Brief Outline The main purpose of this project is to critically assess the impact of poverty and malnutrition on the children. For this purpose, assessment of current situation of malnutrition in the United Kingdom and the Philippine and effects of poverty and malnutrition have been critically analysed. In the first part of this project, basic information about the Philippine has been provided in which country’s brief history, demographics, education, poverty, health and government’s corruption has been highlighted. It is followed by a brief summary elaborating the drug addiction and malnutrition in the Philippine. In the last part, a critical analysis has been carried out in which different health indicators of the Philippine and the United Kingdom have been elucidated. Additionally, this part also highlights the impacts of poverty particularly on the physical and mental growth of children. Despite the fact that malnutrition is common problem in the Philippine, the state of malnutrition in the United Kingdom has also severed in the recent history as the reported cases of malnutrition have increased substantially. Introduction History of the Philippines The Philippine has experienced colonisation and occupation in its history. In the 16th century, Spain invaded it and declared it its colony (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d). Central Intelligence Agency (n.d) also entails that the United States of America gained its control following the Spanish-American War in 1898; and during the Second World War, Japan occupied it till the end of the War and on July 1946, the country was declared an independent state. Overall, these three countries invaded the Philippines and left their impact on the social fabric of the country. The Philippine is a diverse country. Its population is mixed including Christians, Muslims and other communities. However, the majority is catholic (82.9 %) and Muslims (5%) and others (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d.). The country has a very different age structure in which more than 33 per cent belong to the category of 0-14 whereas 19 per cent of age structure is assigned to the age bracket of 15-24 and between 25 to 54 age brackets, 37 per cent of population has been observed (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d.). This indicates that majority is either appears in the children category or adolescent if the initial both age brackets are combined together. Additionally, this also highlights that a higher birth rate and growing Filipino children population is another reason for these both age structures. Demographics Poverty Globally, poverty is comparatively decreasing (United Nations, 2013). However, the World Bank (2014) highlights that Filipino poverty headcount ratio at national poverty line was 25.2 per cent of the total population in 2012. In 2003, 2006 and 2009, this ratio was 24.9 per cent, 26.6 per cent and 26.3 per cent respectively (The World Bank, 2014). In other words, from 2003 to the end of 2009, the poverty headcount ratio was consistently increasing with an average of 1 per cent every year, highlighting that more and more ordinary Filipinos were unable to satisfy their basic human needs and they experienced a further decline in their already decreasing standard of living. However, after the year of 2009, it has been seen that the level of poverty is diminishing. Despite this decrease, it cannot be termed as substantial decline in the rate of poverty. Moreover, keeping in view the age structure, which highlights that more than 37 per cent of population belong to the age bracket of 0-14, the effects of poverty are mainly faced by the children under the age of 14. Education According to the data provided by Central Intelligence Agency, 95.4 per cent literacy rate has been observed as per the 2008 report. In which, age 15 and over are appropriately eligible to write and read; additionally, 96.8 per cent female and 95 per cent male population are considered to be literate. Additionally, school life expectancy is averaged around 11 years in which male population employs 11 years whereas female population takes 12 years to complete their schooling. Additionally, based on the report of 2009, it has been observed that the Philippine government only expends 2.7 per cent of GDP on education sector (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d.). This level of expenditure clearly hallmarks that the Filipino government’s sincerity towards the cause of education. Government and Corruption Corruption is rampant across the Philippine. In the latest survey, which was conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), the Filipino businessmen were asked to express their opinion about the current level of corruption in the public sector; they uttered that corruption has reached 56 per cent in 2013 from the level of 43 per cent in 2012 (Bacani, 2014). This indicates that for a routine work, such as licences and permits and compliance with the government regulations, the ordinary Filipino businessman is required to pay bribe for completing work from the public sector organisations (Bacani, 2014). Additionally, this also indicates that the corrupt public sector officials do not consider bribe a crime but have made it part of their official duties and rights. Moreover, after the recent typhoon, hitting the Philippine, many people did not directly pay to the government of Philippine instead they preferred the Red Cross and other international NGOs to rehabilitate the affected areas and provide the basic human necessities (Associated Press, 2013). Overall, the growing level of public sector corruption has put negative effect on the current level of poverty. Brief Summary Drug Addiction Corruption also spreads drug addiction in the Philippine. Corruption means compromise on the laws and rules inbuilt to the legal structure of the Philippine. It is the prime responsibility of law enforcement agencies and personnel to prevent the spread of drugs in the country. For this purpose, they are required to tighten the security at all entry points. However, if the officials themselves compromise on the Filipino laws by not stopping the spread of illegal drugs, consequently, the use of illegal drugs will spread. Currently, as illegal drugs are not being controlled properly, the number of drug addicts has alarmingly increased and reached the level of 1.7 million as identified drug users and that is highlighted by the official authority of the Philippine (Office of the President Dangerous Drug Board, 2014). In this regard, it is important to highlight that the provided statistics only highlight the identified users and the possibility of more drug users cannot be ruled out. Malnutrition Malnutrition is defined as underweight (Blossner and de Onis, 2005). The term malnutrition also refers to both overnutrition and undernutrition as well (Blossner and de Onis, 2005). Generally, it has been perceived that undernutrition causes malnutrition. However, this definition has also classified overnutrition causing malnutrition. In addition, “severe acute malnutrition is defined by a very low weight for height (below -3z scores of the median WHO growth standards), by visible severe wasting, or by the presence of nutritional oedema” (World Health Organisation, n.d). This definition and classification is technical and biological depiction of malnutrition-affected children. However, it is important to understand that causes of malnutrition differ from country to country or region to region or from case to case. For example, in the United Kingdom, malnutrition may be caused by overnutrition whereas undernutrition may cause malnutrition in the Philippine. This difference is mainly caused by the socio-economic conditions and access to the basic human necessities. And it is also possible that poverty, which is common in the Philippine, may be mainly contributing to the malnutrition; on the other hand, lack of breastfeeding may be causing malnutrition in the United Kingdom. Critical Analysis Contrast and Comparison (The United Kingdom and the Philippine) Both countries have considerably different economic and health outlook. Consequently, they have diverse economic and health indicators. For example, the United Kingdom is a member of developed countries whereas the Philippines are still a developing country. As a result, their economy, poverty level, education and health expenditure and other prominent indicators will be considerably different. For example, the United Kingdom expends 9.4 per cent of its GDP on health whereas the Philippine consumes 4.6 per cent of the GDP on health (World Health Organisation, 2014). The total difference between these figures is 4.8 per cent, highlighting that the United Kingdom incurs more expenditure on the health of its citizens whereas the Filipino government is utilising less expenditure on the health of local people. Interestingly, according to the published World Health Organisation data for 2012, the total population of the Philippine was 96,707,000 in 2012 whereas in the same year, the total UK population was 62,783,000 (World Health Organisation, 2014). This data clearly indicates that despite the fact that comparatively more people are living in the Philippine than in the United Kingdom, the Filipino government’s expenditure on the health sector is considerably lower than the health expenditure being done by the UK government. Moreover, there exists colossal difference even in the per head health expenditure in both countries. World Health Organisation (2014) highlights that the per head health expenditure was $ 3495 in the United Kingdom annually in the year of 2012; on the other hand, only $ 202 were expended by the Filipino government on the per head health expenditure in the same year. In other words, the UK government expends more than 17 times than the Filipino government on the per head health expenditure annually. Aggregately, based on this data, it can be contended that the Filipino government’s priority has not been to address health related issues and problems. This difference clearly impacts on the health of the Filipino children because children need different types of immunizations and vaccinations and other health facilities which will enable the children to fight against the malicious diseases such as dengue fever, polio, diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria and other diseases. Within this context, it is important to highlight that more than 37 per cent of total Filipino population is under the age of 14; as a result, children between 0-14 are at higher health risk and this risk becomes severe and damaging when more than 25 per cent of ordinary Filipino live below the poverty line. Similarly, if parents are unable to earn sufficiently and they do not have access to the basic human necessities, they will not be able to provide sufficient and required amount of food intake to their children. Under this situation, the entire family will be prone to higher health risk and the major cost of the poverty will be paid by the children because it is highly likely that they will suffer from the effects of under-nutrition. As a result, children’s mental and physical development will be severely affected. Impact of poverty on the Filipino Children Figure 01: Poverty and Malnutrition Relationship Source: (Balck et al., 2008). Poverty and social inequalities have profound effect on the health and nutrition of children (Spencer, 2008). In this regard, this figure clearly depicts the relationship between poverty and children malnutrition. This situation is also highlighting the current state of poverty and malnutrition and their effect on the physical and mental development of children. In the figure 01, among other basic causes, political aspect has also been mentioned, highlighting the fact that it is the responsibility of respective governments to look after citizens particularly children, who are the most vulnerable to diseases, and they should provide them at least basic health facilities. However, this reality is unfound in the Philippine as the current and previous governments have not made sincere efforts to address the problems of health by increasing the health expenditure. In this regard, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) drafted a report on the malnutrition in the Filipino children before and after the Typhoon Bopha and published the results. In the report, the UNICEF (2012) provided that the incidence of acute malnutrition particularly among children under 5 remains around 7.3 per cent and this figures reaches 10 per cent especially in the conflict zones of the country. Furthermore, 240,000 children identified for acute malnutrition and 8,000 children under the age of 5 were cured of severe state of acute malnutrition (UNICEF, 2012). Effects of Poverty and Malnutrition on Physical and Mental Development of Children Poverty creates causes for malnutrition and the effects of malnutrition are received by the physical and mental development of children. Physically, a child will not be healthy and he will not be in a position to move and walk according to the age requirements. For example, at the age of one, a normal child starts crawling and at the age of two, the normal child starts walking; and after the age of 3 and plus, the child starts walking confidently. However, these standards differ from country to country due to health and other reasons. Similarly, if a child is not given a required amount of nutrition from mother, in that case, the child will not be able to crawl or walk as per the age requirements for a normal child. In that case, nutritional deficiency will remain and that will continue affecting the child throughout life as certain impacts of malnutrition are short term while others affect throughout life. Recently, the malnutrition cases have reportedly been doubled in the United Kingdom as they have reached 5,599 in 2012 from 3161 in 2008 (Cooper and Dutta, 2013). This situation demonstrates that the chronic problem of malnutrition is not decreasing despite the fact the United Kingdom government expends 9.4 per cent of GDP on the health sector. This substantial increase highlights that the United Kingdom government has not been able to decrease the occurrence of malnutrition and its health strategy has not been up to the mark for decreasing the effects of malnutrition on children. Within this context, UNICEF (2014) has provided some basic health highlights about the United Kingdom and the Philippine. Under age 5 mortality ranks for the United Kingdom and the Philippine is 161 and 75 respectively; under age 5 mortality rates in 2012 for the United Kingdom and the Philippine was 5 and 30 respectively; low birth weight percentage for the United Kingdom and the Philippine during 2008 to 2012 was 8 and 21 respectively. The difference of under age 5 mortality rank between both countries clearly shows the health care difference in these countries. The United Kingdom has the higher under age 5 mortality rank whereas the Philippine has the lower mortality rank, indicating that the reported under age 5 deaths in the UK are considerably lower whereas the more under age 5 deaths are being reported in the Philippine. Among other causes, this higher under age 5 deaths are also caused by insufficient food intake by mothers. Since mother, who breastfeeds a child, is required to take sufficient amount of vitamin A, and other essential food items, the absence of such intake will directly affect the health of mother and the child as well because the child will not be able to receive a proper proportion of nutrition from breastfeeding and consequently will suffer from the effects of malnutrition. Moreover, under age 5 mortality rate is higher in the Philippine than in the United Kingdom; this again indicates that the Filipino children are not getting enough nutrition during the pregnancy period and till the age of 5. After two years, a child starts eating food independently and at that stage the child is required to consume enough nutritional food so that the basic physical and mental development is not hindered and he continues to grow in a normal trend. During this period, the body and mind starts to increase ability to work and for this purpose, they require adequate amount of nutrition. However, it is also important to highlight that after the age of two, children become more vulnerable to malnutrition and susceptible to any disease because at that stage, they start depending on food intake as the period of breastfeeding is completed. The difference of low birth weight between both countries is considerably visible. In the United Kingdom, the low birth weight, during 2008 to 2012, was recorded 8 per cent whereas 21 per cent was observed in the Philippine as reported by the UNICEF. Undoubtedly, the UK’s low birth weight is less than the Philippine’s low birth weight. In this regard, it can be contended that the UK government expends more on the health sector than the expenditure provided by the Philippine government. Additionally, in the United Kingdom, adequate health facilities are available along with the most modern health equipments and available treatments for different chronic diseases. And these chronic diseases are treated not only by the public sector health care units and hospitals but also private sector also treats different diseases. On the other hand, the private sector health care units and hospitals in the Philippine remain more active and expensive as well whereas the public sector health care units do not provide adequate health facilities and treatments. This insufficient health care facility in the public sector hospitals is mainly caused by number of reasons including corruption, embezzlement of public funds, partially qualified doctors and nurses as well. Moreover, low birth weight is also caused by the effects of poverty in the Philippine. And the subsequent impacts of low birth weight also negatively affect the mental development of underweight born child. During the pregnancy, it is important for the pregnant woman to take necessary nutrition and supplements. For this purpose, a prescribed nutrition is taken which is recommended by a doctor. However, if the pregnant mother is not taking adequate amount of nutrition, the subsequent effects will directly influence the child growing in the mother’s womb. Under this condition, the normal growth process is ceased and the different types of malnutrition- related issues start causing medical problems. In other words, the unborn child faces the problem of abnormal or subnormal mental development and this process is continued even if the mother fails to provide necessary nutrition through breastfeeding. Consequently, the child is more exposed to the risk of subnormal or abnormal mental development. Conclusion Poverty and malnutrition significantly affect the Filipino children. According to the World Bank, poverty headcount ratio at national poverty line was 25.2 per cent in 2012. The report also highlights that more than 37 per cent of Filipino population comes under the age bracket of 0-14, reflecting that the Filipino children are being mainly affected by the impacts of poverty. Also, malnutrition has been defined as both undernutrition and overnutrition as well (Blossner and de Onis, 2005). In comparison with the United Kingdom health expenditure, the Filipino government only incurs 4.6 per cent of its GDP on the health sector and this figure is less than the health expenditure made by the United Kingdom government. Moreover, despite the fact that the population of the Philippine is more than the United Kingdom’s population, the Filipino government still spends limited amount on its health sector. Moreover, there exists a considerable difference of per head health expenditure in both these countries as the United Kingdom uses $ 3,495 on its citizen whereas only $ 202 is being used by the Filipino government. As a result, these factors put negative effects on the Filipino children because lack of adequate nutrition mainly puts negative effect on their physical and mental growth as well and this inadequate nutrition is primarily caused by poverty. 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