Years of ongoing civil war and poor governance have led to widespread poverty, low levels of education, poor healthcare, and systematic human rights abuses. Children, who comprise approximately 40% of the population, are disproportionately affected by all of these factors. Decreased government spending on education has resulted in the deterioration of standards of primary education, which have coincided with increased illiteracy and dropout rates. Likewise, lack of spending on healthcare has resulted in Burma?s healthcare system being ranked 190 out of 191 countries by the World Health Organization in 2000. According to UNICEF, of the 1.3 million children born every year in Burma, more than 92,500 will die before they reach one year of age. The majority of infant mortality has been attributed to insufficient medical knowledge and attention. As poverty has consumed the population, children are frequently required to contribute to their family?s livelihood either by participating in family businesses, seeking external employment, or fulfilling a family?s obligations to participate in government forced labor projects. Children are not exempted from serving as porters for the military or being recruited to serve in the armed forces, fighting against ethnic minority populations and forced to perpetrate human rights abuses themselves. Ethnic minority children are often more vulnerable due to the fact that ongoing civil war is fought in ethnic minority areas. In addition to contending with the discrepancy between access to social services available to the military and civilian populations, ethnic minorities face the more direct consequences of internal conflict. Children living in ethnic minority areas, like other members of their communities, continued to be subjected to physical injury, torture, rape, murder, forced labor, and forced relocation as the government attempts to suppress any opposition, both armed and unarmed. Children in these areas are also forced to witness atrocities carried out against their family and community members; to endure separation from their families and communities; and to suffer from extremely limited access to healthcare, education, housing, and food. There can be no improvement in the situation for the children of Burma without a radical change in the government and progress towards democracy.