Lot of children in Thailand saw their quality of life improved when the Thai government ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992.
That’s how the child mortality and childhood diseases have decreased. Literacy rate has increased, less child are malnourished and more and more children are studying instead of working.
However, some problems for children in Thailand persist today.
These problems include the lack of access to quality education, child trafficking, modern slavery and child abuse.
Unfortunately, Thailand’s development doesn’t impact every child. Some of them not benefiting from progress, in particularly children of ethnic minorities and migrants who are both very poor.
First problem : access to quality education. UNICEF has estimated that 900,000 children in Thailand are either not going to the elementary school or not going to school at the right age. The majority of these are issued of minority groups.
The second problem is that children trafficking continues within Thailand but also from Thailand to nearby industrialised countries.
Many child are victims of the worst forms of child labour, mainly in agriculture but also in shrimps breeding, fishing, prostitution and domestic slavery. Frequently, they have to lift loads, work for long hours or use hazardous substances. Most of these child are migrants from Myanmar without any piece of ID.
On the other hand, there isn’t a lot of child malnutrition in Thailand. Indeed, the country is known for having some of the best nutritional programs in Asia. In 30 years, Thailand has reduced child malnutrition from 36% to approximately 8,5%.
Thailand has still a lot to do to fight against disadvantaged children and social inequalities to avoid the poorest being trapped.
