The South African index of multiple deprivation for children: census 2001

Abstract

The detrimental impact of poverty on child development, educational outcomes, job prospects, health and behaviour is well known, and governments worldwide have committed themselves to eradicating child poverty as well as the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Yet more than 60% of South African children live in households with annual incomes below $1 360 (2006 value) and mortality and maltreatment rates remain high.

In order to realise the rights of all children and tackle child poverty, it is critical that robust measures are developed to quantify the nature and extent of social deprivation experienced by children at sub-national level and thereby accurately identify the areas of greatest need and the most deprived areas. It is also essential that these measures focus specifically on children; separating children out from household level data or data presented for the total population and foregrounding deprivation from a child perspective.

This report is a first attempt to generate data of this nature, to map child deprivation at municipal level, in order to inform local level policy and intervention in South Africa. Making use of information available from the 2001 Census about different aspects of deprivation, such as income, employment, education, health and living environment, the authors have combined these domains to form an overall index of multiple deprivations. The model which emerges is of a series of uni-dimensional domains of deprivation which can be combined, with appropriate weighting, into a single child-focused measure of multiple deprivations.

This title is a valuable resource for policymakers, NGOs, scholars and other stakeholders monitoring the situation of children in South Africa.