Child protection

Introduction

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Medium-Term Strategic Plan: Child Protection

Over 100,000 children were beneficiaries of prevention or protection measures in 2008, among whom some 37,000 in prevention services. About 46,000 children were in family-type services, including foster care, and some 24,000 (down from 25,000 in December 2007) were in residential care. Quality of care in foster families and of placement in extended families is improving. Just over 2,000 children were placed with a guardian. Most of the children in residential care are older, and many have special needs.

An emerging issue relates to the increasing number of children left behind by parents migrating to other EU countries in search of better work opportunities. In a UNICEF supported study in 2008, it was estimated that 350,000 children (over 8% of the child population) have one or both parents living abroad. Only 7% of the parents officially announced that they were going abroad, and leaving their children behind. One third have both parents abroad. Of these 50% are below the age of 10, while 16% have lived apart from their parents for more than one year. However, as many as 700,000 Romanians could return from abroad in 2009 as a result of job loss in Western Europe due to the financial crisis. Such an increase in the jobless, added to those who face lay-offs on the local market, could lead to a tripling of the 360,000 declared unemployed in 2008. However, the upside is that many of the 350,000 children left home by their parents who migrated abroad for employment could get their parents back.

UNICEF continues its efforts to increase the capacity of decentralized authorities to act and react for the prevention of child abandonment and separation from the biological family, through the development and expansion of preventive, community-based social, medical and educational services, including services targeting Roma families and children.

Millenium Development Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Romania's rapid economic growth began in 2000, leading to a substantial drop in absolute poverty, defined in a declaration at the World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen as “a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services." Absolute poverty, set at $4.30 purchasing power parity (PPP) per day, dropped in six years from 35.9% to 13.8% in 2006. Pockets of deep, entrenched poverty persist in rural areas, in the northeastern region, among the Roma, young people, those with poor education, the unemployed and the self-employed. However, relative poverty rose slightly in Romania in 2006, to 18.6%, from 18.2% in 2005, with an insignificant change in inequality. In 2006, rural poverty amounted to 29.6%, compared to 9.6% in the urban environment. Over 70% of Romania's poor live in rural areas, despite the country's substantial potential in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. From the point of view of households, there are four types subject to a higher poverty rate, namely: single persons, at 26.8% (19.8% men and 30.1% women); single parent families (27.1%); families with 3 or more children (45.4%) and single people over the age of 65 (32.8%). The poverty rate among children aged 0-15 is 25.7%. While poverty among children has dropped by over 30% since 2003, the risk of relative poverty continues to rise. Some 75% of poor children live in rural areas, where the poverty risk is three times higher than for children living in urban areas. More than one third of these poor children live in agricultural families, with a poverty ratio seven times higher than for children living in families with at least one employee. While poverty among the Roma dropped from 76% in 2003 to 58% in 2006, the poverty risk among the Roma population went from being three times higher in 2003 to four times higher than for the majority population in 2006.

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