One in ten of Dutch children grows up in poverty, according to children’s ombudsman Marc Dullaert in the first edition of the Netherlands Children’s Rights Monitor.

According to his report, 327,000 children do not get enough healthy food. In many cases there is no money for sports club memberships or swimming lessons and their clothes and shoes are secondhand.
Most children in the Netherlands are happy and healthy, but Dullaert is worried about the 500,000 who are the victims of abuse or poverty.
His advice is that children living in poverty should be well-monitored to prevent their living standards falling even further.
The Monitor is based on existing research and put together for the children’s ombudsman by Leiden university and social policy advisor SCP. It will be published annually.