Saturday was Universal Children’s Day. It was not the only international day dedicated to children. Children have for many years been foremost in the mind of policy makers. The weekend marked the date when the United Nations adopted the Declaration of the Right of the Child (1959) and the Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989).

The 2000 Millennium Development Goals had much focus on children that is continued, among other things, through the international Save the Children Movement. Awareness about the need to promote the good of children is not lacking. Nevertheless, so much still needs to be done. Just how much is suggested by adverts that appear on UK television channels accessible on our cable networks.

They regularly project heartbreaking scenes of children born maimed whom early surgical intervention could help in time; of children living in dire circumstances and outright hunger; of children reduced to a pitiful small bag of bones held in terribly wrinkled skin and dying prematurely.

The children thus depicted live in the emerging world, in countries we used to describe more graphically as the least developed. Wherever they live they are our young brethren. Those who die of poverty are unjustly denied life. Those who survive in poverty and ignorance will grow up into tomorrow’s deprived citizens, the new wretched of the earth.

Our television screens remind us of the continuing suffering in Haiti. That is a fraction of what is going on in the poorest areas of the world. The surprising thing is that the welfare of children is not always properly cared for even in countries that enjoy a good standard of living. Ours is one example. We are better off than most and relatively well off. Post-World War II political intervention has seen the introduction and growth of a generous welfare system. Dom Mintoff is credited by those who do not make themselves badly politically myopic with having boosted that. But every post-war government has done its bit to improve the system.

And, yet, we do not always get our priorities right. The Budget recently presented for 2011 is one example of that. The Finance Minister had his work cut out to find enough financial resources to present a Budget which he had to keep slim in order to try to cut the deficit. He had economic growth in mind to safeguard and generate jobs. All necessary and praiseworthy. He allocated funds, as he must, to the services provided by the public sector. And also to welfare. Children benefited as they usually do through the various votes, mostly through the funds financing education.

Seen positively and dispassionately, the minister steered in the right direction. Yet, in doing so he found precious little extra resources for the disabled, children or adult. He made a gesture towards the mobility challenged. In extra marginal terms, that was all.

There was not adequate provision, for instance, to ensure timely and early intervention for children diagnosed with intellectual disability. It was not the case of an unfeeling minister turning his face away. He is a committed family man who, no doubt, wishes to do the best for all. He is led by a Prime Minister who made an early name for himself as a champion of the disabled. It doesn’t even cross my mind he does not care as much as he did when he was quite younger and when he was Minister for Social Policy.

Still, disabled children and others were not high in the Budget priorities. The government will say that was due to the tightness with which the Finance Minister had to operate. And, yet, he comes out with a substantial allocation to build a completely non-utilitarian bridge leading to the breakwater, where line-fisherman will be able to go to put their life in danger. And, yet, funds will be found outside the Budget to spend much more than necessary on a new parliamentary building.

And this is Malta, where there is an undisputed common commitment to care for the most needy, who are not many when we compare to less developed countries. Good thing we celebrate days dedicated to children’s rights. It should jolt us into remembering more acutely our own children while not forgetting to dip hand in pocket to aid those so abysmally worse off than we are.