| The
population of Burma is young, with children under the
age of 18 make up approximately 40% of the population.
While children have always helped out on family farms
and small businesses, poverty is forcing children to
leave school and work long hours. It is thought that
20% of the SPDC Army soldiers are children. |
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The minimum age for working is 13. Children work in
the informal sector, in family business, in forced labor
on junta-sponsored infrastructure projects, and as child
sex workers. |
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Children are legally liable at 7 years of age and there
is no juvenile justice system. Despite the legal implications,
children are not taught their rights in school, because
“children would not be able to understand the
principles involved”. |
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Children are forcibly recruited to be soldiers. It is
estimated that there are 70,000 children currently enlisted
in the SPDC army, the largest number in the world. |
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15% of children are born with a low birth weight,
and 32% of under-5 year olds are underweight. |
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56% of child deaths are attributable to the effect
of malnutrition and infection. |
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60% of Rohingya children in Northern Arakan State
suffer from chronic malnutrition. |
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30% of school-attending teenage girls are anemic. |
| • In conflict areas,
health outcomes are much worse because of food insecurity,
childhood malnutrition, and increased rates of child
and infant mortality and deaths from diarrhea, malaria,
landmines, and violence. |
| • Among internally
displaced populations, it is estimated that one in six
children under the age of five is acutely malnourished. |
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Current junta policy claims that schooling is free
up to age 16; however, it allocates less than 2% of
its national budget to education (the military takes
up 40% of this budget).
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Students and their families are forced to subsidize
schools - paying for uniforms, materials, buildings
and teacher salaries. Under this system, nearly half
of school age children never enroll, and only 30%
complete more than 5 years of schooling. |
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Only 46% of all schools are equipped with sanitation,
and only 17% receive drinking water. |
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Travel restrictions, statelessness and other discrimination
exclude Rohingya children from anything more than
village-level basic learning. |
| • In conflict areas,
education is disrupted because village schools and teaching
materials are destroyed. It is estimated that only 1,000
of the 30,000 school age children living in conflict
areas reach high school. |
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