Bhutan

Background

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Bhutan has experienced solid economic growth in recent decades, and the government is devoting significant portions of the national budget to health and education. But positive macroeconomic trends have not transformed living conditions in the countryside. Poverty is concentrated in rural areas and in the eastern regions, causing many people to migrate to the cities in search of jobs and better social services.

• Many rural children have been left behind by migrating parents, or have been sent by themselves into urban areas for education.
• Most births are not attended by trained medical professionals.
• Bhutan still has the opportunity to head off a serious HIV/AIDS epidemic.
• Although primary school enrolment has risen steadily in recent years, Bhutan continues to lag behind other South Asian nations.
• Basic education is free but not compulsory. Many schools in the south were closed due to political unrest in the 1990s and have yet to reopen.
• A quarter of all children ages ten to fourteen are working. Many toil for long hours as domestic workers, earning minimal wages, and are vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse by their employers.

• To reduce maternal mortality, health-care workers have been trained in safe deliveries and neonatal care. UNICEF has outfitted clinics and hospitals with heaters, obstetric equipment and basic supplies.
• Improved measles immunization coverage has lowered child mortality rates.
• To reduce anaemia, all schoolchildren receive weekly iron supplements.
• More than 150 new community schools have been opened in recent years, allowing more than 12,600 rural children to attend classes within an hour’s walk of their homes. Many girls who had been kept out of school due to the danger of travelling long distances were enrolled for the first time.
• UNICEF has developed new multi-grade teaching materials and provided teacher training to improve learning achievements.
• Literacy programmes supported by UNICEF have extended education opportunities to more than 16,600 adults, mostly rural women. Their reading material includes practical information on health and child development.
• Water and sanitation systems (with separate toilets for boys and girls) have been installed in new community schools around the country.
• At the end of 2004, floods destroyed 59 rural water systems, including those in 11 schools. UNICEF has repaired the damage, helping to contain an outbreak of cholera caused by contaminated water.