「아동의 빈곤예방 및 지원 등에 관한 법률」의 개정 및 보완방안

Abstract

In South Korea, child welfare policy has not been managing the child poverty matters even though the number of children who are becoming poor has sharply increased due to family disorganization which is caused by runaway, divorce, separation, disease and death of their parents under social polarization and economic recession. However, according to the previous research into child poverty, it had considerably negative effects on whole parts of child development including physical and mental health, scholastic achievement and prosocial behavior. Therefore, they could not escape from the poverty even when they reached adulthood. Hence, people called for government involvement in indigent child matters, and the necessity of early involvement for indigent child at the aspects of health, welfare and education were emphasized, thus, some projects such as ‘We start’ and ‘Dream start’ were being executed. Furthermore, enactment of ‘Indigent Child Support Act’ for prevention of indigent child and continuous and systematic support for them has been insisted by parliament and the academic world, and as a result of these efforts, the government legislated「Act of Prevention and support of Child Poverty」(Act No. 10850, effects on July 15th, 2012)(Hereafter, called “Indigent Child Support Act”.) on July 14th, 2011. This Act has consulted the 「Child Poverty Act, 2010」of England. Indigent Child Support Act is the first law which has been legislated in south Korea related to ‘indigent child’, in spite of this fact, it only has 11 Articles which includes very fragmentary and fundamental items, therefore, doubts on its effectiveness are being expressed. In addition, this Act has delegated significantly small number of items to its enforcement ordinance or enforcement regulation. Hence, the purpose of the enactment of ‘Indigent Child Support Act’ and its basic ideology would be hardly achieved if the law is enacted within the limits of these items. Thus, substantial reinforcement of ‘Indigent Child Support Act’ should be executed urgently for the appropriate operation of ‘Indigent Child Support Act’ which aims for the prevention and support of child poverty. So, in this paper I will exercise the problems of ‘Indigent Child Support Act’, and suggest its reformation.