Children’s Well-being and Social Inequality

Welfare is the security of family, individual, social group, class and population as a whole in the state with vital necessities (spiritual, material, social). The main element of well-being is differentiation and income level of the population. The well-being of a child is determined by the necessary material and other resources that ensure the life of a child.

The well-being level of families with children depends on socio-economic situation in the country and in the region, on the strategy of state social policy, on social support measures that are based on principles of social justice in distribution of public resources, and on effective mechanisms of state support for families with children in difficult situations, as well as on individual activity of a family in achieving economic well-being.

The population’s standard of living is determined by the level of income in comparison with the subsistence minimum and with the consumer budget, the level of wages, the development of social infrastructure, the government policy on income regulation and other factors. Different levels of social development are the basis for social inequality, for emergence of rich and poor, for social stratification (stratum layer, which includes people with the same income, power, education, and prestige). Poverty is manifestation of inequality in income distribution, which signifies social exclusion, and falling out of public life.

What is social inequality today? The basis for social inequality is still the structure of a society, in which access to public and private welfare is unevenly distributed. In reproduction of such a structure, each person depending on the social position, as a rule, participates daily.

Improving population well-being through a gradual increase in real income, reducing excessive differentiation between different categories of population and ensuring appropriate social security are the strategic goals for social development.