Save The Children Romania: One in Two Romanian Kids Is Exposed to Abuse

One in two Romanian children is exposed to abuse, Save The Children Romania shows in a press release.

In Romania, one in two children is subjected to physical, emotional and sexual violence, while 41.5% of children live at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and six children out of a thousand die before making it to one year of age. Besides, 731 girls under 15 become mothers annually (2020 data), and at least 100,000 children live without both parents or one of them.

Moreover, in 2021, one in three children faced anxiety and needed counselling and psycho-emotional support; the percentage increases to over 50% in the case of adolescents, leading to extremely serious consequences, namely attempts of suicide.
In only 8.1% of cases, the diagnoses were independent of the pandemic context (opposition, ADHD / ADD, speech disorders, liminal intellect or neurodevelopmental conditions), according to the data of a survey conducted by Save the Children Romania.

Romania continues to be the Member State of the European Union with the highest level of poverty risk or social exclusion among children, 41.5% of them, meaning 1.5 million children, more than adults (34.5%) being affected by the lack of family income to ensure survival or a decent living, the social and educational isolation in which they live, the lack of access to nutrition according to the age and biological needs of the child and to quality socio-educational and health services.
Romania remains a country of unequal opportunities. This risk of poverty ranges from 19.9% in large cities to 30% in small towns and suburbs and reaches a worrying level of 50.5% in the rural environment.

Although most children (94%) say that they feel safe in the family and only 3% say that they never feel safe at home, the answers received from the children show a much higher incidence of the application of corporal punishment (46%), compared to that recognized by parents (28%), both in terms of “mild” forms and in terms of severe conditions. The analysis also shows that 10% of children prefer to leave the family for fear of punishment. For 2%, this happens often and very often.
Compared to a similar study in 2013, there is a significant increase in the percentage of parents who acknowledge the incidence of sexual abuse on their child (from 0.5% to 3.2%).

However, the Council of Europe estimated in 2020, in the Report on the Implementation of Directive 2011/36 / EU on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, that 90% of cases of sexual assault on children in Europe do not reach the attention of the police or the courts.