869568788

ZESZYTY NAUKOWE

Uczelni Warszawskiej im. Marii Skłodowskiej-Curie

Nr 4 (46) / 2014

Urszula Tyluś

University of Natural Sciences and Humanities in Siedlce

Poverty of children and youth as a contemporary social problem

Introduction

Poverty affecting children is an alarming phenomenon, deeply set in the process of pauperization of societies around the globe. The problem of an unfavorable existential situation conceming Polish children is even morę common compared with other European countries. The claim is based on the analysis of relative poverty among children in developed countries shown by UNICEF Report Inno-centi Research Centre in 2012. Morę worrying news about the situation of Polish children can also be heard from the Main Statistical Department. According to it, in 2011 and 2012 there was deprivation found among children and the youth. During the examined period about 10.5% of young generation until the age of 18 com-prised members whose families indicated the ratę of daily expenses below the offi-cially stated level of poverty. Families whose daily expenses were lower than the minimal amount of existence included 9% of youngsters under the age of 18. In consequence, children and the youth constituted around 31% population at risk of extreme poverty, which meant that statistically every fifth person belonged to this group (based on the Main Statistical Dept. 2011, 2012). The statistical data only illustrate the quantity dimension of this phenomenon without revealing details about living in poverty. They just enable one to look objectively into the demo-graphic stmcture ofthe society but at the same time they provide basis for further reflection, without revealing details of children and the youth living in poverty.