South Korea’s Welfare Ministry on Wednesday announced its plan to tackle children’s unhappiness, including establishing a charter on “children’s rights to play.”

According to the ministry’s 2013 data, Korea scored the lowest among the OECD in terms of children’s “life satisfaction” with a total of 60.3 out of 100 points. The government’s goal is to increase the index to 77 points by 2019.

Some of the major reasons behind the statistics include lack of leisure time and hobbies, as well as stress over academic obligations. Korean children were found to be the unhappiest among OECD countries in previous years as well, with 64.3 points in 2009, 65.1 in 2010 and 69.29 in 2012.

The ministry plans to tackle the problem by announcing a special charter on “children’s right to play” in the near future, partly inspired by what is already stated in the proclamation in the 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly.

The 1959 declaration reads: “State Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.” The ministry hasn’t decided when to unveil the charter, which is currently being established.

Korea ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which stipulates that all children have the right to play and rest, but it is the first time the government is making an effort to ensure that Korean children enjoy that right.

“The government policies on children have been mostly focused on their education and development, not their happiness or leisure time,” said Koo Mi-jeong from the Welfare Ministry.

“The newly established charter will be more detailed than what is stated in the U.N. convention, and will try to meet the unique or specific needs of Korean schoolchildren. Once the charter is announced, four ministries ― the ministries of education, gender equality, culture and welfare ― will work together to come up with leisure programs for schoolchildren.”

The government is to also decrease the number of children who have no hobbies to 32 percent from the current 54.8 percent, as well as the number of child victims of physical abuse to 280,000 from the current 294,188 by 2019.

It also hopes to decrease the number of child victims of sexual violence to 25,000 from the current 26,962, and increase the happiness index of children in poverty to 54 points from the current 46.1 by the same year.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)