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Philosophical Views about Children19:13, 6 January 2019 (UTC)19:13, 6 January 2019 (UTC)19:13, 6 January 2019 (UTC)~ 1	Introduction: The comparison between states has been going around since advent of civilizations, long ago this comparison used to be on the basis of infrastructure, agricultural land and the number of men in the army. The process of evolution not only changed man but it also changed the way men think about the world and themselves. In this modern era, the most important factor of a society is its individual and the focus of states is now to improve the living standards of its common people. There is still a difference of classes among the societies but it is not as strong as it once was. Human development is the most important goal of states now and empowering its people to achieve a better living standard is the focus of all the policies. When looking into the policies of the state towards their people, one must focus on how the policies are being executed, as making policies for public welfare has long been an easy task but implementing them and enforcing Law to guarantee no right exploitation of the people has always proved to be an uphill task for the governments. There are many policies focusing on the human empowerment and life standard improvement and their numerous variations in different countries, the focus of this report shall be on the child growth and their respective policies for child support in two different countries. The scope of this report is limited to a general comparison in the previously named policies between the “United Kingdom” and “South Africa”. The rationale behind the choice of these specific countries is the difference between the culture, region and economic positions. We must remember the fact that UK was most famously known as the “British Empire” and has ruled over most parts of the world and that South Africa has been plagued with slavery for a huge amount of time. We will not be criticizing any country on the basis of their history nor their cultures but we will be solely focusing on the child support policies of both countries and analyze the situation of the children and their growth opportunities in both countries. We will look into some philosophical background and point of views on the children born in the 1st world countries with that of born in the 3rd world countries, this report will include the statistical details of both countries regarding their respective policies focused on child support. We will look into the historical background of the treatment of both countries towards their people and child growth as well and attempt to compare the past with their present and also find out their future policies regarding the crisis related to human growth in the respective chosen countries as well. This report will be divided into three further sections, the first section will explain the UK policy and practice towards child support, the second section will explain the South African policy and practice towards child support and the third section shall be to lay down a brief comparison between the two countries in our subject under discussion. We shall look into some philosophical point of views regarding children of different areas and try to build up a context before the actual debate begins. As the report progresses, we will be able to analytically understand the difference between child support and child effective child growth. Some important views are stated below regarding our topic under discussion. 1.1	Philosophical Views about Children:

There are many different perspectives about children, but we will consider the most famous ones form renowned philosophers. 1.1.1	Romantic Perspective: This perspective mainly suggests that: •	Children are seen as innocent and in need of protection •	Children should have free expression and play •	Children need an enriched environment This is supported by the philosophers: Jean Jacques Rousseau, William Wordsworth. 1.1.2	Puritanical perspective: This perspective mainly suggests that: •	Children are born intrinsically evil •	Parents and children need to rid children of evil tendencies by teaching them to be good by using stern discipline •	Often emphasize the need for purposeful activity •	Versions found in several faith traditions 1.2	Marxism and Welfare State: Marxism is the best described as the theory on based on class struggle being the center element in the analysis of social and behavioral change in the European countries. The dominant feature in Marxism is public ownership and equity, Marxism is the philosophy of communism stating the division of equal rights in a society. Marxism has very board view over the childhood era of a human. We need to understand that the social construction of children is dependent on their respective environment. A society will always consist on a few privileged and a few non privileged individuals. The fate to be born in a privileged house hold is not the control of the child. Children born in a poor environment suffer due to social injustice and class struggle. A nuclear family would have both parents working and exploiting themselves in the capitalism dominated industry and the child would not be able to get the necessary attention and care from his/her parents. Thus the social injustice for the child begins on the stage of an infant. Marxism stresses upon the idea of sharing resources, in the manner that people of a state are treated equally and everyone enjoys the available resources. These are also the principles of a social welfare state. Marxism is a framework that stresses on the empowerment of the poor (working) class as much as the elite class of the society. Through this ideology of Marxism came the actual concept of welfare states. It is very interesting to know that even capitalist states have Marxism based framework to enable their working class and the poor people of the country. Welfare states focus widely on tax collection and human development, the taxes are imposed highly on the privileged class and is collected nationwide, these taxes are later used for the benefit and support of low class people. Welfare states take responsibility of its citizen’s basic rights and provides them mostly free of cost to the suffering people. Our topic of discussion falls directly under the umbrella of a social welfare state, as we will study the policies of our two selected countries, focusing on human development based on public interests. 1.3	The Northern Child:

The ‘Northern’ Child is a term used for the children born in the northern hemisphere of the globe. Naturally the countries in the northern hemisphere are considered to be the 1st World countries, if not all of them are classified as 1st world countries, most of them are. We will look into this classification later as the report progresses. We should understand that this term ‘northern’ child is not just a jargon; it is an entire ideology or social construction service. It should be noted that a child who is brought up in a certain environment and culture, is different from a child brought up in a different culture, because both children are socially constructed to be different and exhibit different kind of behavior (Tina Lovell & Alan Yeo, 2002). A child’s vision and hopes are greatly different from another child because of the difference in social construction. Childhoods are different due to different social, economic, environmental and cultural trends. Every child will have different kinds of expectations from the world, because they are influenced by different situations and even different thought pattern of the people they are surrounded by. The ‘northern’ child is considered to be a privileged child, because of the social construction that child will encounter and also due to the facilities available for a child in 1st world countries would be better than that of available in the 3rd or 4th world countries. The perfect example of a ‘northern’ child can be well exhibited by considering the Finnish baby cardboard boxes. It has been established that from the past 75 years the expected Finnish mothers are given starter kit in a box for her upcoming child, this kit features toys, clothes, sheets and are expandable to be used as a bed for the child as well. The figure shows the picture of an infant inside the state granted box. Now that we look into it deeply, we begin to understand the supposed privilege of the northern child. In this case the child is granted with adequate supplies to sustain the environment and be socially constructed in a safe a way. The most valid piece of information is that, this trend of the Finnish govt. started back in 1935, when Finland was a poor country and yet they focused on their high child mortality rate of 65 out of 1000. Now this rate has decreased down to 6 infants out of 1000 infants (Lee Helena, 2013). This was just an example of the importance a country gave to its infants, we would look deeper into the advancements of the Finnish government, but it will be out of the scope of this report. 1.4	The Global child: This term is referred to as the rest of the children including the northern children as well. We have studied that in some way the northern child is privileged over other children. We need to look into this a little deeper, now that we have understood that there is a divide even between the social construction of children. The main factors resonating these things are that of country policies. It is a clear difference as we cannot compare the social construction of a child from UK or USA with that of a boy in Vietnam. Some important facts about the Global child are as follows: •	Poor children have 1.9 times more chance of dying before reaching the age of 5, compared to rich children •	If the world doesn’t take care of this inequality before 2030: o	A total number of a 167 million children under five years of age would be suffering from extreme poverty. o	The years 2016-2030 will have a cumulative 69 million deaths of children o	About 60 million children old enough to be in primary school will be out of school. This was just a contrast between the northern and the global child, as the report progresses we will study these things in more details. 1.5	Global County Division: The comparison of our report is between two different countries of the world so we need to understand the global country divide and the concept of different numbered world countries. There are currently three different kinds of world countries and it should be evident that this divide was formally accepted after the 2nd World War. 1.5.1	First World Countries: The term "First World" refers to so called developed, industrial countries, functioning on the capitalism ideology, a group of countries aligned and supported the United States of America after the 2nd World War some of these countries are:, Western Europe, Japan, Australia and North America (nationsonline, 2012). 1.5.2	Second World Countries: The term "Second World" refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, now these countries are Eastern Europe, China and Russia (nationsonline, 2012). 1.5.3	Third World Countries: The term "Third World" are all the other countries. Most of the third world countries are the old colonies of the British empire or states under some kind of war state. These are mostly developing countries of Asia and mostly middle eastern countries (nationsonline, 2012). This classification was discussed in order to understand the further sections which will primarily focus on our two countries under discussion. 1.6	Child Support: In a given family law, child support is said to be a payment made by the parent for the financial support of the child. This is also known as the child maintenance, as to the payment that would be made, shall be for the better maintenance of the child ( Wikimedia Foundation, 2018). It was thought to be a moral obligation for the parent to do so, normally child support as term was used in case of divorce or separation of parents. This concept changed when the world entered a modernized era and the states started to look deeply into the problems of their people. Child support now is also considered to be an allowance paid to the parent or parents for the better growth and maintenance of the child. The US Federal government in 1975 issued an act known as the “Family Law Act”, which enforced all the states of US, to formalize a policy for formal child support and almost all the states of US have their own mechanism for child support, mostly states function on the basis of payments to be paid to the parent, however single parent children are preferred more in the financial aids (Wikimedia Foundation, 2007). The states have their own laws regarding the child custody as well. We should remember that the policies are not just for children whom are born in disputed couples but these policies are for children whom are in poverty and their parents cannot bare the expenses of their maintenance as well. In the next sections we will formally study our subject under debate in reference to the two selected countries. 2	United Kingdom: We have previously discussed that UK is a first world country and it is assumed that the services towards human development are state of the art. The UK govt. focuses primarily on the development of their people and common man empowerment. Our subject of discussion is the child support policies of the UK government but before we look deeply into that we will touch some facts about the UK. •	The head of the state is the queen, UK works on a unitary parliamentary constitution. •	They have a total nominal GDP of $2.434 trillion and 38,591$ per capita GDP. It makes it the 6th highest GDP in the world and the 3rd Highest in Europe. •	In terms of purchasing power parity, the United Kingdom is the eighth largest economy on the globe. •	There is a coastline after every 75 miles, making the country the best beach vacations point. •	There are 29 UNESCO World heritage sites in the UK. •	It is legal for children over the age of 5 to consume Alcohol. •	There is an estimate of 30% women in England to have had an abortion in their lifetime. •	Britain is the only country in the world without having a written constitution. •	UK was the 16th country to be on the highest human development Index (UNDP, 2018). •	4.1 million children are living in poverty. •	28% gap in grades (GCSE) between children between children with free meals and that coming from poor families. •	1 in 5 children in the UK lives in poverty. 2.1	United Kingdom as a welfare state: The United Kingdom has one of the world’s social welfare system. There are mainly 3 pillars of this health and social welfare system (British Council, 2003). These are: •	National Health Services (NHS) •	Social Services •	Social Security It should be noted that 90% of all healthcare in Britain is funded by the NHS (British Council, 2003). The year 1948 holds very much importance in the UK history as this was the year that formal elements of “Welfare State”. This understanding featured the following points: •	Social Security •	Health •	Housing •	Education •	Welfare and children The state began to realize the importance of these polices, the Britain at that time had an act known as the Poor Law which was supposed to do most of the points of the welfare state structure, but things were not formalized very well, but after a number of activities and bills in the parliament, the structure of the welfare state was adopted by the UK and slowly it took roots and now is regarded as one of the world’s best System. 2.2	Child Maintenance Service: Child maintenance is regular, reliable financial support that helps towards a child’s everyday living costs. The child maintenance Service is a government statuary that collects and pay out child maintenance payments on behalf of some separated parents. This organization works in the following main steps: 2.2.1	Income: They check if a parent’s gross income is falling under the respective criteria or not. 2.2.2	Parameters that affect gross income: They check certain parameters that may change the gross income and effect the household expenses. 2.2.3	Apply Child Support rates: On the basis of the gross income they apply child support rates, which is of 4 categories.

The figure 2 shows the four categories of rates based on the parent’s gross income. Figure 2 Rates of Child support 2.3	Child Benefits: There are various types of child benefits in UK. There is an entire state department which deals with these. Child benefit is available for people whom are taking a child into their families, it doesn’t matter if you’re the parent or not. This benefit has rates according to the number of children, but it should be noted that these benefits are only there for children under the age 16 (UK Govt., 2018). The rates of child benefit are given below: Allowance beneficiary 	Amount per week

Only child (Eldest)	£ 20.70 Children additional to the first child 	£ 13.70 (per child) Figure 3 UK Child Benefit rates 3	South Africa: South Africa is classified as a 3rd world country, the details of world country classes has been previously discussed in this report. South Africa is often thought to be a country to be very underdeveloped and be technologically primitive, however that is not the case entirely, compared to UK we can assume that South Africa is behind but in the region of Africa, it is a very progressive country and holds a diverse population. Some important facts about South Africa are: •	South Africa has three capital cities: The Executive Capital is Pretoria, Cape Town the Legislative Capital and the judicial Capital is Bloemfontein. •	30.4 million people in South Africa are living in poverty. •	13.8 million people are food poor (do not have sufficient diet to eat in a day). •	Compared to 2011, the country has become ever poorer than before. •	93% of poor South Africans are black. •	25.5% of the population is unemployed. •	More than 50% of South African Children Live below the line of poverty. •	It is the only country in the world to have hosted all major sports World Cups. •	It is one of the richest mining countries, having 90% of platinum metals on Earth. We will now look into some of the aspects which may have caused the issues, we will go through a brief detail about some of the factors in the further sections.

3.1	Apartheid Apartheid was a social and political system in South Africa while it was under the rule of white-minority. This law lasted till 1994 (Wikimedia foundation, 2009), it was issued in 1948 and was finally abolished in the 1990s. This law is stated as the most racial law ever made on Earth. Because this law was specifically against to rights of the black native community of South Africa. The law divided the people on the basis of their race. White and Black people were not allowed to live in the same areas and even children were not allowed to spend time together, this was a total racial divide, this law also banned any intermixing of blacks and whites. This law had caused a social construction of children born at that time, as to be a 2nd grade citizen and be an alien nation. This racial act effected generation and generations very badly and still children suffer from this complex. 3.2	World War 2: The white minority rule was established in the South Africa properly after the 2nd World War, in the start of the war things were different in South Africa and historians point out the rise in employment but the darker side of history was use of native people for war and the treatment of the native people was very poor and they were being exploited without even realizing it properly. The war had affected the area in a way that people could not understand, the neo Nazi group of elite exploited the rights of the natives and hence there was never an establishment of social security or child protection, the nation was treated mostly as a slave on racial basis. 3.3	South African Social Security Agency Act:

2004 marks as the year of change in the social welfare history of South Africa, because an Act known as the “South African Social Security Agency Act” was assented by the president. This act stated: “To provide for the establishment of the South African Social Security Agency as an agent for the administration and payment of social assistance; to provide for the prospective administration and payment of social security by the Agency and the provision of services related thereto; and to provide for matters connected therewith” (REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, 2004) This act became the building block for all sorts of improvements in South Africa. 3.4	South African Social Security Agency (SASSA): National taxes are the main source of SASSA payments that make up a key part of social security in South Africa. South Africa has a very progressive rate of income tax that ranges from 18% to 41% depending on the income of a resident. There are many areas that the SASSA grants cover but we will primarily focus on the Child Support Grant. 3.5	Child Support Grant: It is for the primary care takers of children under 18. The grant features support for any person who is above the age 16 and is being the care taker of any resident of South Africa. These grants offer ZAR 410 per month per child, which is not a very bad sum. The requirements of this grants are: •	Caretaker cannot apply for more than six non biological children. •	A child cannot be cared for in state institution. •	Both the applicant and the child must reside in South Africa. This grant plays a very import role in reducing poverty, as it provides an opportunity for children to grow in a better environment and also supports the parents as well in taking take of children. The grant is very helpful in the education of children as, in most cases the grant funds the school expenses of the child entirely. 4	Analysis and Comparison:

This report encompasses the child support programs of two countries, one belonging to the 1st World Countries list and the other belonging to the 3rd World Countries list. We have carefully attempted to analyze the strengths and weakness of both nations and their respective policies. According to our humble attempt we have analyzed the following similarities: •	Both policies are made eradicate poverty and empower children •	Both policies focus on all aspects of the child including health and education •	Both policies are funded by the public tax collection •	Both policies are implemented by state owned organizations •	Both policies follow the Social Welfare State skeleton These are just a few of the similarities that were evident during the compilation of this report, the dissimilates are: •	There is a difference between the amount or rate of child support of both countries •	Child support system is more automated in the UK than in South Africa •	Compared to respective Economic conditions South Africa’s grant are slightly more than the UK There is room for improvement in both of these polices, as mentioned before these policies are for the betterment of the people, so it is very hard to announce which one is better than the other. Both countries policies are very good in their own respective conditions. There is always room for improvement, the Britain people suffered very much due to the situation of UK leaving the EU, the South African people started to fall down on the poverty index after 2009 again. So there is room for improvement in both policies as to counter these problems and not let the common people be effected by it.