The root causes of exclusion

Discrimination comes in many different forms but almost always ends in exclusion.

© UNICEF/ HQ01-0675/Alejandro Balaguer

Albina, a 12-year-old girl from the Kandozi indigenous group in the Amazon, hopes to trade the hen she is carrying for medicine to treat a family member who is ill with hepatitis B.

When children or their caregivers live in areas that are poorer, or face cultural or language barriers, they can miss out on important services. Inequalities in children’s health, rate of survival and school attendance are often based on gender, ethnicity or disability.

Gender

Gender inequality in education means that for every 100 boys out of primary school, there are 117 girls who also miss out on primary education. And gender gaps in secondary education are even worse. Girls are more likely to miss out on the opportunity to gain the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will help them gain an equal place in society.

Gender also affects which children end up being excluded from essential services, like healthcare, which in turn increases the risk of both maternal mortality and child mortality.

Ethnicity

Ethnicity is a set of characteristics – cultural, social, religious and linguistic – that forms a distinctive identity shared by a community of people. There are some 5,000 different ethnic groups in the world, and more than 200 countries have significant minority ethnic or religious groups.

Sadly, ethnic groups often face discrimination. Almost 900 million people belong to groups that experienced prejudice as a result of their ethnicity, with 359 million facing restrictions on their religion.

Around the world, some 334 million people face discrimination because of their language. In over 30 sub-Saharan African countries, for example, the official language is different from the one most commonly used, and only 13 per cent of children in these countries are taught in their mother tongue. You can imagine how difficult school becomes for these children!

Indigenous children, whose communities often insist on their right to a separate culture and language, can suffer discrimination as well. They are less likely to be registered at birth and are more likely to face health problems, abuse, violence, exploitation and a lack of education.

Prejudice at community and institutional levels can limit political and other opportunities for members of an ethnic or indigenous group, and at the most extreme, can lead to armed conflict or ethnic violence.

Disability

Most children with disabilities in the developing world have no access to healthcare or support services, and many cannot get a formal education. Disabled children are often withdrawn from community life; even if they are not actively shunned or maltreated, they are often left without adequate care. Where special services do exist for children with disabilities, they are usually segregated in institutions.

Many disabilities in developing countries are caused by a lack of proper nutrition or healthcare in early childhood or in the womb. But regardless of the cause, children with disabilities need special attention to ensure that they have every opportunity in life.

Look at the graph below. You can see that girls in many regions of the world are more likely to be out of school than boys.