b, \

rs y 1979 International.
\ v Year of the Child
SS Pa

ASIAN
CHILDREN

Life’s battle begins at birth

Three million Indian children
this year will not live to celebrate
their first birthday. For many
Asian children the battle for life
begins even before birth. In an
area where over half the popula-
tion lives below the poverty line,
pregnant mothers remain under-
nourished and overworked, over
60% suffer from anaemia. Seven
out of 10 Asian children are born
without any trained medical assis-
tance; the result is a high toll in
both infant and maternal lives.

One of the most fatal enemies
of both mother and child is mal-

nutrition. A large number of chil- .

dren die of measles, chickenpox,
etc. who but for malnutrition
would not have contracted the
disease or if they had, they would
not have died.

Health care for the rural popu-
lations in vast areas is virtually
unattainable. In Nepal, Bhutan
and Afghanistan during rainy sea-
sons and winter storms, roads are
completely impassable leaving
whole provinces without any
form of communication. In-
donesia has over 3,000 inhabited
islands which are uncommunica-
ble by boat during the monsoons.

These difficulties have a double
effect on health care delivery,
both in the patient’s inability to
get to medical care and in the re-
luctance of professionals to work
in these areas.

Urban Health Care

For the urban child health care
facilities are not much better.
Children’s hospitals, doctors,
etc., are not provided in every
city and where®available many
cannot afford the high fees. In
several Asian countries however,

Child labor is not prohibited in
all Asian countries and poor chil-
dren provide a huge source of
labor to be cruelly exploited.

Three million indian children will not live to

successess have been registered
in the fight against epidemics.
Small pox has virtually been
eliminated, malaria is almost en-
tirely controlled.‘ Vaccinations
have managed to check such dis-
eases as plague and cholera.

Malnutrition however can only
be eradicated through a redis-
tribution of the wealth of these
countries. In Afghanistan under
the monarchy 2.1% of the rural
population possessed 70% of the
fertile land while over one million
families lived off only 30%. In
tural areas of India near slave-
like conditions exists for agricul-
tural workers. Only since the lib-
eration of the Laotian people in
1975 was the feudal system of en-
forced labor and duties there
abolished.

For Kampuchea, Laos and Vie-
tnam care for their children must
be undertaken in conjunction
with the reconstruction of their
war-shattered lands.

War in. Vietnam

The consequences of 30 years
of war in Vietnam is beyond im-
agination: five million square
kilometres of housing was de-
stroyed in the north, 4,000 vil-
lages were wiped out, 3,000
schools, 1,500 hospitals and
clinics, every single power sta-
tion, every single bridge, every
single road.

In the south, U.S. aggression
left 800,00 orphans, including
550,620 children fathered by
American soldiers. In 1975 there
were only nine orphanages in
Saigon for over 400,000 parent-
less children. There was only one
hospital with 400 beds. In the
whole country 97 children’s doc-
tors were available for over nine’
million children under 15.

The war also left over half a
million prostitutes, 30% of these
are under 18, nearly one million
invalids and cripples, plus innum-
erable victims of other social
wounds.

Even during the struggle waged
by the Vietnamese people to lib-
erate their homeland, great gains
were made to eradicate illiteracy,
education and medical care was
free, and every priority was given
to the care and safety of their chil-
dren.

For Laos liberation came in
1972. The U.S. had dropped 3.5
million tons of bombs causing un-
told damage and killing 13% of the
population. ;

Since then small hospitals are
the beginning of the construction
of an extensive health service
which pays special attention to

child is mainutrition and lack of adequate medical care.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 6, 1979—Page 6

mother and child. Doctors and
medical aids hold classes for ex-
pectant mothers and mothers of
young children. In many areas
posters advise. women how to
care for themselves after child-
birth and when nursing their
babies. Since free medical aid was
introduced the number of people
consulting doctors has grown.
New schools have been built
which are attended by children
during the day and by adults in the

evenings. Only in 1976 -nearly

80% of the Laotian population
was illiterate, since ‘then over
three million people have learned
to read and write.

Illiteracy Problems

Illiteracy is a major problem in
Asia. Very few countries, with
the exception of the Soviet Re-
publics, Mongolia, Vietnam,
Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea and Japan have compul-
sory education up to the high
school level. In other countries
education may be free in some
cases but costs for textbooks, un-
iforms, travel, etc., prohibits it for
many who can’t afford these ex-
penses. The result is over 80-mil-
lion Asian children do not attend
even primary schools.

The alternative for many chil-
dren is work. Child labor is not
prohibited in all Asian countries
and poor children provide a huge
source of labor to be cruelly
exploited. :

The Indian Council on Child
Welfare states that children be-
tween 7-14 are employed in fac-
tories, shops, etc., in conditions
bordering on serfdom. They work
a 10-15 hour day for as little as
1Scz

Economic necessity requires
many mothers to work, yet 94%
of working mothers in agriculture
and household industries have no
alternate care for their children.
No infrequently children as
young as four years are required
to become surrogate parents.

Kids Need Peace
The situation for Children in
Asia is a mixed one. In the USSR
republics, Mongolia and the
Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea, years of socialism have
provided the basis for children to
grow in an atmosphere of peace
and prosperity. In Afghanistan,
Vietnam, Laos and now Kam-
puchea the struggle against im-
perialist and domestic repression
has provided the basis to build a
society where their children are

the number one priority.
Yet for the other developing na-

celebrate their first birthday. The most fatal enemy of the Asian

k.

New schools have been built in Laos attended by children during the
day and adults at night. Since 1976 over three million people have

learned to read ahd write.

i

The consequences of the Vietnam wars Is beyond Imagination; in

addition to caring for the permanently handicapped over one million

children are orphaned.

tions, although some gains have
been made, childhood is a ques-
tion of survival for the majority.
Repressive regimes and im-
perialist plunder have left a legacy
of want and starvation, war and
destruction:

The memories of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki have not faded
away, yet foreign troops are es-
tablished on bases in the Indian
Ocean, Japan and South Korea to
protect and preserve monopoly
interest in that area of the world.

Stepped.up drive
to free Chavis

the Wilmington Ten has

trict Court.

habeas corpus petition

With the victims of the war in
Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea
still before our eyes the Chinese
leaders are performing the tasks
of imperialism by threatening and
attacking their neighbors.

Only in an atmosphere of peace
and security can children thrive,
only then can these countries
begin to make the UN declaration
of rights for children a reality,
only then will every Asian child
have the right to grow to adult-

hood.

International focus ——_—_—

ree should act with speed!

The struggle for justice for

been

going on in the United States
and around the world since
they were first arrested and
framed in North Carolina in
1972. The Ten were sentenced
to a total of 282 years not be-
cause of criminal conduct, but
because of their participation
in the fight for civil rights. —
The latest legal efforts to
have the cases reviewed and
justice served came March 13
‘in a motion filed in U.S.

Dis-

Attorney James E. Ferguson
states. in the motion that one

has

been pending in the District
Court in Raleigh, North
Carolina for more than three
years. A second habeas corpus
petition, closely related to the

trate and expedite proceedings
in light of the inordinately long
delay of the Magistrate.”’
“‘It-is clear,’’ said Charlene
Mitchell, executive secretary
of the National Alliance

urgency to hold a hearing
‘Rev. Benjamin Ch?
continues to suffer the of
of imprisonment. And,
the others of the Ten al@
parole, their freedom 15
verely curtailed by Pp
restrictions.”’ a
‘“*As we have said,” a
Mitchell, “‘the Wilmit of
Ten were wrongfully in wa

~wrongfully tried, and wi!

fully convicted.”’

South Africa has |
its ‘Muldergate’ —
People have sometl!
wondered how letters, art!
and statements defending of
apartheid government in $
Africa could find their wal
prominently and regularly
the media. al
The ‘‘Muldergate’’ scam
today bubbling in South
gives us-some insight. bey

first, was filed almost 14 Mulder, former Info

months ago. Minister in Pretoria has P
In essence Ferguson asks - vealed that a $76-million S¢ /

the court to ‘‘bypass Magis- slush fund was set up wit

knowledge. of the then P 0
minister John Vorster .
president) to buy off influe™ :
persons and publications
paint a rosey picture of 5?
Africa.

Against Racist and Political Facts, including documel
Repression, ‘‘that Magistrate show the money was to ie
Logal Howell is guilty of “distributors and publicatt!
obstructing justice in the case conferences, front of8 ;
of the Wilmington Ten. U.S. zations, collaborat?
District Judge Franklin DuP- advertisements, liaison

; a