LONDON, October 11 – At least 50 million children in eastern Europe, particularly in the former Soviet Union, live in poverty and are exposed to levels of tuberculosis usually associated with the Third World, according to the European Children’s Trust.
The Trust, an international development non-governmental organization active in 10 eastern European countries, said in a report released Wednesday that Western governments should ease the region’s debt burden.
The report – “The Silent Crisis” – said poverty in the region has increased more than tenfold over the last decade due to reductions in government public expenditure on health, education and social provision.
“Since the breakup of the communist system, conditions have become much worse – in some cases catastrophically so,” it said. “In view of the extent of the economic collapse … the term ‘transition’ seems a euphemism; ‘Great Depression’ might be a more appropriate term.
“For all its many faults, the old system provided most people with a reasonable standard of living and a certain security.”
At least 50 million children are living “in genuine poverty” in the region, of which 40 million are in the former Soviet Union, it said. Of the total population, over 160 million, or 40 percent, are thought to live in poverty.
As indicators of poverty, the report measured infant mortality, the proportion of population not expected to live to the age of 60 and the number of tuberculosis cases.
It said the region’s infant mortality – at 26 percent in 1998 and since growing – is catching up with rates in Latin America and the Caribbean (32 percent).
Some 24.6 percent of the population was not expected to reach 60, it said, compared to 25.2 percent in Arab states and an average of 28 percent in developing countries. Russia was on a par with India, with nearly 30 percent not expected to reach 60.
Rates of tuberculosis – a powerful measure of social deprivation – in 1997 were also much higher in eastern Europe at 67.6 cases per 1,000 people than in Arab states (49.6), Latin America (47.6) and east Asia (35.1). For developing countries, the rate was 68.6.
The Trust said maternity and child benefits, unemployment pay and pensions, free education and health care, affordable public transport and housing have all disappeared as gross domestic product and public expenditure have fallen, industry has collapsed and prices have soared in eastern Europe.
The rate of poverty was worst – at 88 percent of the population – in Kyrgyzstan.
The West, the report argues, could help by easing the region’s debt burden, which it said amounted to almost half its GDP.
It also called for the expansion of services that prevent family breakdown, the development of a targeted family support system and improving standards of local management.
Aid should be focused on training, it said, rather than on short-term relief.
“Time is running out. Their economies may be repaired in the long term, but whilst this is happening very serious damage is being done,” the Trust said. “That there has not been a total collapse of social structures in these countries so far is a testament to the resilience of the people there. But they cannot continue living this way indefinitely.”
The Trust, based in London, was established in 1990 to dismantle the orphanage system in Romania. It has since established programs in Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia and Ukraine.
Richard Carter, a former policy analyst at Britain’s Department of Health, was the author of the report.
