There has been little debate about child poverty in Congress, and when it has been done, as in the plenary session of October 29, in a question asked by the socialist Pedro Sánchez to the President of the Government, Rajoy chose to respond about what should have been done in the past legislature, when the PSOE governed, but he was not able to cite a single concrete initiative on what his Government is doing to eradicate the problem that hurts the most in Spain.
And there has been little debate on the issue that should most concern the Government for many reasons, but, among others, because of the paralysis of many of the initiatives that accumulate and are never debated in plenary sessions and committees. This deputy, for example, presented a non-legal proposition on June 12, 2012, that is, two years and five months ago, with all the proposals that UNICEF raised in the report it presented that year, but it has not been included until now in the agenda of any plenary session or committee.
Yes, on the other hand, a non-legal proposition was approved on June 28, 2012, which we all signed without much enthusiasm, with less ambitious objectives, without economic commitments and which, in addition, were far from the challenges posed by such a serious and painful challenge as fighting against a problem that is not solved either with vague declarations of intentions or with promises that are not linked to budget allocations.
UPyD proposed this week that a specific plan be approved, with sufficient economic endowment and that it include a State Pact. In a single sentence, it proposed three measures that have never, not even once, been admitted in this legislature. And on this occasion, the same script was repeated. The Popular Party has always fled from the idea of articulating specific plans to combat the different fronts opened as a consequence of the economic crisis; it has been even more implacable with any initiative that entailed a budgetary allocation, and has rejected with more vehemence if possible any state pact.
One of the consequences of the crisis that is most worrying is that of those boys and girls who barely eat once a day, who have abandoned their schooling and who, even, have serious difficulties in accessing health care. The crisis, as we all know, hits the smallest ones the hardest. That is, those boys and girls whose parents or those people who tutor them desperately seek the few exits within their reach to cover the most basic needs of their children. The mortgage and the bills drown the economy of those families who have lost everything. And covering the basic food needs of their children has become a luxury for many.
No child has been responsible for the debt nor does he know what we are facing because of the economic crisis, but, according to UNICEF, "much debt contracted at high interest rates will have repercussions as part of a "social mortgage" that makes each child born at this time in Spain do so with a public debt of 15,570 euros".
What can the Government do to mitigate the impact of its policies on children? The Government must protect from cuts those investments in the areas that pose fundamental challenges to children, such as the fight against poverty. Firstly, because poverty has in the case of children some very special implications that do not occur in the case of adults: children do not have resources by themselves with which to face their situation; poverty can have in their case irreversible implications for the future -in the form of poor nutrition, worse educational development, psycho-affective problems, etc.-; and finally, because those same implications are extended in the medium term to the whole of society, affecting the economic, productive and social prospects of the whole country.
And, with binding character, an impact report on children should be made in all legislation and normative provisions, in addition to putting in place formal mechanisms to evaluate the impacts of the economic crisis and austerity policies on children and their families.
Our social protection system has a historical deficit of attention to children that manifests itself, among other things, in an investment well below the European average. And in addition, that investment that we make is much less effective than it should be: that is, it does not reduce poverty sufficiently.
We cannot wait any longer, nor can the Popular Party continue to hide behind excuses for not accepting what non-governmental organizations propose: the signing of a Pact for Children. Nine autonomous pacts have already been signed since 2010, the last of them in the Canary Islands. But this pact will not be enough either. Concrete measures and resources are needed.
As a teenager from Bangladesh of only 16 years old said, "give us, your children, a good present. We, for our part, will give you a good future".
Ana Oramas, deputy of the Canarian Coalition