A new report says mental health should be a socioeconomic right as 10% to 20% of South African children will develop a mental disorder and/or a neurodevelopmental disability.

The Children's Institute recently released its 2021/2022 Child Gauge report, which was authored by Mark Tomlinson, a professor of psychology at Stellenbosch University, education specialist Lori Lake and Sharon Kleintjes, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UCT.

The report's main focus is on child and adolescent mental health, and how early-life experiences of adversity play out in children's lives generationally. It calls on the government to put children at the centre of South Africa's development policies.

The report says 10% to 20% of South African children will develop a mental disorder and/or a neurodevelopmental disability, and this is merely skimming the surface.

"The intergenerational impact of trauma, poverty and mental ill health forces us to take an incredibly long view of wellbeing," says the report.

The report is divided into three parts.

Part One is Children and Law Reform, which discusses children and the National Health Insurance, draft admission policy for ordinary public schools, the Births and Deaths Registration Act and the Firearms Control Amendment Bill.

Part...