Spanish kids live at risk of poverty: Charity

The charity Save the Children has warned of growing poverty among children in Spain, saying the situation needs to be addressed urgently.

The charity launched a petition on Tuesday urging the Spanish government to do more for deprived children in the crisis-hit country.

According to the aid group, a third of all Spanish children, or some 2.7 million kids, are at the risk of “social exclusion” due to living in poor conditions.

“The problem is real, it is here, and it is only going to get worse and worse unless urgent social programs are launched by the state” the charity warned, adding, “An entire generation of Spaniards are about to be lost forever”.

Save the Children called on the government to extend payments of child benefit to all families living below the poverty line.

The petition also insisted that Madrid should increase the amount of payments and move to monthly payments instead of paying twice a year.

The charity found cases of children who were going to school without textbooks because their parents could not afford them.

Spain has been struggling to deal with its worst economic crisis since World War II.

A fifth of the Spanish population is currently living under the poverty threshold as defined by Eurostat, the European Union’ statistics office.

Lack of jobs and the deepest austerity in more than 30 years in Spain have pushed average household income down 10 percent since 2008.

Spaniards have staged numerous protests against the government’s spending cuts, arguing that austerity measures have resulted in more job losses in recent years.