Children lack support

2003-08-22 13:12

Cape Town - The problems faced by children who run households in which the parents have died or disappeared, were highlighted at a workshop hosted by the Children's Institute (CI) in Cape Town this week.

The workshop, attended by a number of NGOs, focused on the fact that such children are not able to get child support grants (CSG) because they do not have an adult caring for them.

CI researcher Solange Rosa said on Friday this amounted to discrimination on the grounds of age, birth, social origin and family status.

"With the onslaught of the HIV/Aids pandemic, child-headed households have begun to appear as a phenomenon, and are likely to continue to increase in number," she said.

Children can only access the CSG if they had an "adult primary caregiver" to apply for the grant on their behalf.

According to the Centre for Actuarial Research at the University of Cape Town, by the end of last year there were 900 000 children under the age of 18 who had lost a mother.

In the absence of major health interventions, this figure is expected to rise to 3 million by 2015.

"Children in child-headed households, as a particularly vulnerable group, are excluded from accessing the child support grant to help them buy food, clothes etc, because they do not have adults caring for them."

Charlotte McClain, a commissioner with the SA Human Rights Commission, who took part in the workshop, said the rights of these children were being violated.

"Where a number of children are in need as they have no access to social assistance from government, this is a violation of their rights."

She said children without adults caring for them should be provided for in the social assistance and child care legislation.

- SAPA