Asia is the world’s most populous continent. China and India alone are home to over one third of earth’s inhabitants. What challenges do Asian nations face in educating and protecting their citizens?
Education Protects Children
Children are at greater risk of abuse when their parents fail to teach them about sex at an early age, according to Chinese legal experts. Prosecutors in China handled some 8,000 accusations of child sexual abuse in a recent four-year period. Children “are vulnerable and easily become targets,” says a law professor at Beijing Normal University. “Education is the key to preventing sexual assaults.”
Post-Typhoon Mortality
According to one study, the average number of infant girls in the Philippines who die in the year after a typhoon outnumbers by about 15 to 1 the number of people reported as killed by the storm itself. Possible factors include unemployment after a storm, the cost of rebuilding, and the way resources are allocated to infant females, including nutrition and health care.
Suicide Among the Elderly in South Korea
During 2011, more than a quarter of all suicides in South Korea were committed by people 65 years of age and older. Some researchers blame changing attitudes toward care of the elderly and economic factors—almost 50 percent of South Korean seniors live in relative poverty. Less than half of the people in South Korea now think that children should support their aging parents.