CURRENT AFFAIRS

Description

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Introduction

The lives and futures of children across South Asia are being torn apart by the Covid-19 crisis. While they may be less susceptible to the virus itself, children are being profoundly affected by the fallout, including the economic and social consequences of the lockdown and other measures taken to counter the pandemic.

UNICEF has recently released the report to explain the impact on the children.

Impact on Poverty:

·   According to the UNICEF, in 2016, around 240 million children across South Asia were living in multi-dimensional poverty. In the worst-case scenario, COVID-19 could push an additional 120 million children over the poverty line within six months.

Impact on Malnutrition:

·         Even before the arrival of COVID-19, malnutrition was a grim fact of life for children throughout South Asia. Across the region, an estimated 7.7 million children under five suffer from severe wasting and over 56 million – fully one third of all children in that age group -- are stunted. 40 million of those children live in India alone.

·         Since March 2020, the massive loss of jobs and income have made it harder than ever for poorer families to provide nutritious meals for their children.

·         Rising food prices, and scattered disruption to transport links and markets, have made the task even more challenging.

·         In general, urban populations are at greater risk of food insecurity; people in rural areas can often use home produce to supplement their diets. But the most malnourished children are feeling the impact hardest of all.

·         The UNICEF survey in Sri Lanka showed 30 per cent of families reduced their food consumption. Another survey in Bangladesh revealed similar results where some of the poorest families were unable to afford three meals a day.

Impact on Health:

·         Immunisation, nutrition and other vital health services will be severely affected because of the diversion of resources to battle the pandemic.

·         Around 917,000 children and mothers in South Asia may die in the next 12 months, with 881,000 deaths being of children under the age of five. The bulk of these deaths would occur in India and Pakistan, although Bangladesh and Afghanistan could also see significant levels of additional mortality.

·         At least 1.5 million children in Uttar Pradesh, India missed their vaccination doses due to the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Impact on Education:

·         Even before the arrival of the pandemic, the region was grappling with a serious learning crisis, with 31.8 million primary and lower-secondary age children either out of school or at risk of dropping out. Quality has been a longstanding issue as well; millions of South Asian children complete primary education without acquiring basic literacy and numeracy skills.

·         By depriving over 430 million children and youth of several months of schooling, the coronavirus disrupted teaching schedules and exams. It also raised concerns that some disadvantaged students would never return to class.

·         Various forms of improvised – and often creative -- remote learning have helped fill the gap left by the school closures. But many households – especially in rural areas -- have no electricity, let alone internet access.

·         The other serious challenge is the disruption of School feeding and nutrition programmes and reports have linked the enforced confinement of children at home to cases of violence and abuse.

Impact on Child mental health:

·         Children are suffering from abuse, uncertainty, stigma and discrimination. Worst affected, are children in societies where physical punishment is an acceptable means of disciplining children.

·         The physical safety of girls and women is a major concern in the overcrowded refugee camps.

·         Sexual violence has increased manifold.

·         This may increase issue of child marriage as families may allow young daughters to be married to reduce the number of mouths to feed and in the hope that the girl will be better looked after by a husband.

Hence through the above data it can be seen that decades of progress on children’s health, education and other priorities across South Asia was unraveled and at risk of being wiped out completely by the COVID-19 pandemic, adding governments must take urgent action to prevent millions of families from slipping back into poverty.

Recommendations of the UNICEF

•        Continue (or resume) life-saving vaccination interventions to respond to outbreaks of measles, cholera, and other diseases, and to address conditions such as severe wasting.

•        Ensure the provision of essential services, including primary health care and nutrition, for all children, pregnant and nursing mothers.

•        Put in place a package of universal income transfers to help children and other vulnerable groups, including older people and persons with disabilities. An emergency Universal Child Benefit (UCB) should be an important component of this package.

•        Provide community health and social services staff with the personal protection equipment they need to feel and be safe while they carry out their duties; also to properly understand and address the barriers that prevent communities accessing essential services.

•        Ensure access to handwashing facilities with soap and water in homes, schools, and health care facilities, especially in high-density settings such as urban slums and refugee camps.

•        Re-open schools as soon as possible while ensuring the safety of students and staff through provision of adequate handwashing and toilet facilities and proper physical spacing in classrooms and other school venues.

•        Scale up the provision of remote learning/home learning options, including no-tech and low-tech solutions with a special focus on marginalised children, while ensuring that existing national funding for education is not diverted.

•        Protect children against violence by keeping phone helplines open and referral networks functioning. Designate social workers as essential staff to allow them to address cases of child abuse, domestic violence and psychosocial support.

•      Additional investment in education systems (including improved reach of distance learning modalities) that comprise universal access to Early Childhood Development; quality basic education; and secondary education that allows adolescents to develop the necessary skills for active citizenship and employability.