Malnutrition & its Impact on Children
Added on 2020-05-28
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Running head: CHILDHOOD MALNUTRITIONGlobal Issue: Childhood MalnutritionName of the StudentName of the UniversityAuthor Note
1CHILDHOOD MALNUTRITIONAccording to the “shared responsibility for common good”, Catholic SocialTeaching (CST), it is the right of every person to have adequate access to resources of thesociety in order to live an easy and fulfilling life (Felten, 2013). For sustainable utilization ofresources, the personal possession and community resources must be optimally balanced withthe disadvantaged and dispossessed. The common good is achieved when people residing inthe society work in unison to improve the overall well-being of the mass (Felten, 2013). Childhood malnutrition, a global burden provides a direct evidence of instances wherethe shared responsibility for common good is not being achieved (Ahmed, Hossain & Sanin,2012). According to reports, in Australia, 44% of paediatric admission takes place due to thesigns of malnutrition (Dengate, 2016). According to the National Rural Health AllianceResearch Australia, the percentage is higher in the remote/regional areas of Australia andamong the Australian’s aboriginals/ Torres Strait Islanders (Bourke et al., 2012). The increaseprevalence in the rural or remote areas gives direct evidence that the act of “sharedresponsibility for common good” is not being achieved. According to The Sydney MorningHerald, the majority of the Australians who lead a lavish life or reside above the povertylevel fail to realise the crisis of accessibility of adequate fruits and vegetables in the ruralareas of Australia (Bagshaw, 2016). Furthermore, UNICEF is of the opinion that there lies asignificant widening gap between the children at the bottom and those at the middle (WHOAustralia, 2013). Thus the resources of the society is not optimally balance, supply of fruitsand vegetables are not scare, but high cost in the supply chain management and lack ofbuying power among the people in rural regions of Australia is the driving cause behind theincrease in the incidence of childhood malnutrition (Fan, 2014). Malnourished children sufferfrom developmental difficulties which in turn affects their education (Freijer et al., 2013).According to the report published by UNICEF, Australian children who are suffering frommalnutrition have poorer health and education outcomes WHO Australia, 2013). The Fairness
2CHILDHOOD MALNUTRITIONfor Children Report as published in The Sydney Morning Herald (2016) showed thatAustralia ranks 27th out of 35 in the health equality outcomes and 24th out of 37 in educationequality outcomes. Thus these groups of children are deprived of fulfilling life, and theprinciple of shared responsibility for common good is bridged. According to the CST, human dignity is something that can never be taken away. CSTstates that each person has their own values that are worthy of respect and they also haveequal rights to be free from slavery, manipulation and exploitation. According to theAustralian Institute of Family Studies, Government of Australia (2017), the Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander children are seven times more vulnerable to substantiated reports ofharm or risk of harm. Here harm signifies long hours of work (forced child labour),educational deprivation and lack of proper meal. Thus their right of human dignity is bridged.In order to overcome this condition, sustained commitment is required to be endorsed whichcovers all the five domains of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child PlacementPrinciple: partnership, prevention, placement, participation and connection. Moreover, careshould be given that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have equal control over thedecisions that affect their children, thereby providing respect to their values and helping theirto enjoy a life free of slavery. They must also be given a culturally safe environment to thrivewhere they get adequate access of food and opportunity of job (not forced labour) and are notcompelled to send their children to earn livelihood for family. Advocacy under CST signifies that in order to promote quality of life and dignityamong the community, proper advocacy must be under taken on any prevailing issue that isdisrupting the harmony of life and preventing any member of the community to enjoy thesustainable resources of life (Turner, 2012). In order prevent childhood malnutrition; childnutrition must be taken into priority. Prioritization of child malnutrition can only be achievedvia renewing funding for child nutrition, such funding can come both from government
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