60,000 more poor children in 2003

Haaretz

The number of children living below the poverty level increased by 60,000 in 2003, Rabbi Michael Melchior, Labor MK and Chairman of the National Council for the Child, told Israel Radio Thursday.

That figure constitutes an increase of 10% over the 2002 figures, which were published Wednesday.

According to Wednesday's figures, nearly half of Israel's children (40%) live in poverty, squalor and delinquency. Another 30% could slip into a similar fate.

Only 30% could be said to have a "happy" childhood, Dr. Yitzhak Kadman, director of the National Council for the Child, said Wednesday.

The council's statistical yearbook paints a grim picture of childhood and youth in Israel, showing an increase over recent years in the number of poor children, children addicted to drugs and alcohol, and victims of violence and abuse.

"Children in Israel 2003," compiled by Drl Asher Ben Arye, Yafa Zionit and Galit Krijack, sees a children's society that has become polarized and ruptured.

In 2002 close to a third of Israel's children (29.6%) were below the poverty line. The number of children, including those in East Jerusalem, was 656,000. Despite fluctuations in the%age of poor children through the `90s, there was a clear rise in the number living in poverty.

More than half (54.4%) of the non-Jewish children live below the poverty line. This is 2.5 times higher than the%age of Jewish children below the poverty line (20.4%).

The higher the social and economic standard of a town or community, the fewer children live there. In the poorest communities children are 60% of the population, compared to just 22% in wealthier ones.

In Bnei Brak 50.6% of the children are poor; in Jerusalem 38.3% are poor (not including East Jerusalem), and in Ashdod 33.3% are below the poverty line.

By contrast, in Ramat Gan and Rishon Lezion, children below the poverty line are little more than 9%.

The number of children living on income supplement has risen 220% since 1995. More than 300,000 children live in families living on income supplement from the NII (National Insurance Institute).

The report reveals a startling rise in crime among minors and young victims of violence and assault. Between 1990 and 2002, the number of cases reaching the Youth Court rose by 50.1% from 6,655 to 10,021.