Census Analytical Report - Uganda Bureau of Statistics

The 2002 Population and Housing CensusTable 9.4: Selected Characteristics of Households with Children, 2002CentralCharacteristics ofHouseholdsCentral(Excl.Kampala) Eastern Northern Western UgandaAll households (Million) 1.5 1.2 1.3 0.9 1.3 5.0Households with at Leastone child (Millions)% of households with atleast one childMean number of childrenper householdAverage household sizeof households withchildren1 0.9 1 0.7 1 3.971.5 73.3 78.8 83.4 82.1 78.32.3 2.5 2.8 2.8 2.7 2.65.3 5.4 5.7 5.7 5.5 5.59.1.3 Children VulnerabilityVulnerability can be assessed at personal and household level. At personal level,vulnerability is a state of being in which a person is likely to be in a risky situation,suffering significant physical, emotional, or mental harm that may result in his/herhuman rights not being fulfilled 10 . Social and physical vulnerability reflect a decreasedcapacity for a person to cope, especially if the state is sustained or if any additionalthreats to social well-being and/or physical health are added 11 . Vulnerable children arethose children who bear a substantive risk of suffering physical, social,psychological/mental and emotional harm in comparison with other children in thesame environment 12 .Selected sub-groups of the population are vulnerable because of their socio-economiccharacteristics. The national OVC policy lists the vulnerable groups, to include amongothers; orphans, abandoned children, children living in poor households, children withdisabilities, child labourers, children in need of legal protection, street children andchildren living in child headed households. The 2002 Census had questions used todirectly or indirectly establish the status of children in relation to specific types ofvulnerability namely orphanhood status, disability, school non-attendance, child labour,children living in child headed households, institutionalized children (in prison,orphanages), homeless children, child mothers and children who are married.Children who fell within any of the above categories were considered vulnerable.3.3 million childrenwere vulnerableTable 9.5 presents the distribution of vulnerable children by type of vulnerability. Itshows that out of the 13.4 million children, 3.3 million (24 percent of the children) werevulnerable, with minor variations by sex and residence. The variations by District10 MoGLSD, Orphans & Other Vulnerable Children Policy, 200411 Barton and Wamai, Asitutation Analysis of Children and Women 199412 Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development , Orphans and other Vulnerable Children Policy,, 2005102