The widening wealth disparity in Taiwan is reflected in the welfare of the country's children, with children from poor families being at least 19 times less advantaged than those from rich families, a survey released yesterday by the Child Welfare League Foundation showed.
The results show that children from wealthy families and those from impoverished families display obvious differences in terms of opportunities to exercise their basic human rights and rights to survival, education, culture and recreation.
For example, their differing educational opportunities can be seen by the fact that rich children tend to have more than two computers in their homes, whereas more than 50 percent of poor children do not even have a desk, the report said.
While 40 percent of poor children often have problems paying their tuition fees and 30 percent have to help out in their families' shops after school, many rich children are sent to various classes after school, learning such skills as golf or horseback riding.
The foundation said that the recent increase in consumer prices has made life even harder for disadvantaged families and children.
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