In Fighting Coronavirus, Are We Ignoring the Invisible Children?

Children may look less vulnerable, but are forced to bear the brunt of the raging pandemic.

Children may look less vulnerable from corona but may feel the heat heavily.

(Photo altered by The Quint)

With the extension of lockdown, the swings and slides are abandoned and the evening silence feels a little too unfamiliar. It seems as if the clapping, shouting and screaming of children have been muted, replaced by images of empty streets and spaces –  the new normal now.  Where are the children? Without play and peers, without schools, the lives of children are now heavily altered.

In India, 41 percent of the population is less than 18 years of age.

Although, coronavirus is not affecting as many children, the epidemic has fundamentally altered lives of children. Some disruptions are obvious but others are insidious, and their impact is going to unfold steadily.

Children are cooped in with adults in at home, usually with the cacophonous, mostly toxic hate-mongering, irrational TV news in the background. Unable to completely decipher the situation, children are most likely to experience fear, anxiety and nervousness.

With Schools Shut, Not Everyone Can Go Online

Closure of schools may protect the school children from coronavirus but the impact on them is going to be detrimental. Children are losing out on their daily interactions with their schoolmates and teachers, and it will be long before they go back to school.

Learning is certainly going to be disrupted, more so for children whose parents are not literate, or  who do not have access to internet-based learning. There is no certainty as to when schools will resume; a prolonged gap is going to be affect children’s interest and ability to go back to learning.

Primary and High Schools function for 200-220 days on an average in India. In the national capital of Delhi, in light of the extremely high levels of pollution, schools were closed for a few days in the months of October and November. Besides these, festivals, elections, and political turbulence are several factors due to which schools are closed down frequently.

How are we to cope with the losses suffered in learning and education as a result of these situations? And if schools continue to be shut down for a long period, education is going to be a casualty.

Certainly, the spread of the virus is affecting educational settings, from tools and resources for studying to the ways in which knowledge is imparted among students. ICT is emerging as an alternative, its potential as a tool to reach education to primary and secondary grade children is being explored.

Yes, it is a good option for the middle class children.

But most in the schooling system do not have computers nor access to internet, and the ICT option is going to exacerbate the divide between the privileged children and the underprivileged children.

The lack of android phone at every household and availability of quality e-materials in regional languages are another bottleneck.

Migrants Have Children, Too

Hunger-related stories and crisis of managing meals by daily wage workers have started coming up in the news.  But above all ,school closure also means loss of the  mid-day meals. This for poor children is going to be distressing, furthering the existing hunger and malnutrition.

Shutting down of schools has adversely affected mid-day meal policy in schools. The central government and state governments of Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states have announced financial help to daily wage labourers in their state. West Bengal government along with its teachers, is making attempts to supply mid-day meals to the homes of poor children.

Meals are being prepared in the schools of Delhi. Karnataka government has decided to provide grains (rice and wheat) and milk to children of Grade 1-10 under the mid-day meal policy. Chhattisgarh government has provided mid-day meals to children in some districts, and decided to transfer a certain amount to bank accounts of the children in  Sukma and some other places.

But is it really reaching the children? There is no way to know in the present circumstances. The pandemic and the lockdown has ushered in a lot of opaqueness in the system.

It is the poor and the marginalised children who are going to be most affected by the lockdown. The  impact of the pandemic on children is insidious and is going to be long lasting. The imagery of  hordes of migrants walking back to their villages, with children in tow, is heart-wrenching.

The hardships of children on the road, with very limited food and water is unimaginable. Do we know how many children were there ? Do we know what happened to them on the way? Did they get something to eat? What are their fears? The silence of media on plight of children in deafening. The marginalised children remain invisible.

Jobless Parents, Dropped-Out Kids

The CMIE survey found that in March 2020, the overall unemployment rate spiked to 23.4 percent, and the urban unemployment rate soared to 30.9 percent. ILO estimates that 40 crore workers in the informal economy are at risk of falling deeper into poverty during the corona crisis.

Loss of livelihood is going to leave a deep impact on children, there will be less to eat, more children will drop out of schools and there will be many more children who will go to work. Some children have already started working with their parents on farms, non-farm activities, some are found assisting in  small grocery shops or selling vegetables in the local markets .

It is well documented that there is a sharp increase in the number of dropouts during crisis. Girls’ dropout rate is a notch higher. Children with disabilities would be more vulnerable.

The situation is dire, the impact of the pandemic and the lockdown on children has to be understood and acted upon. No one knows, how long will the situation continue and what will be its implications for  children living in poverty?

The immediacy is for Government, Research and Civil Society to work together. We need  reliable data on COVID-19 and on children as well!  Information on number of children affected due to loss of livelihood, migration and loss of family members to COVID-19.  We need researched information  on the psychological impact on children, the issues  of child protection need to be understood and addressed.

The present education system, and the dynamics of a student-teacher relationship are likely to change in the near future. With the way that countries are closing their borders across the globe, Indians in foreign lands are returning to their homeland, and rural migrants returning to their villages, there might be a need to formulate new education policies.

While fighting with the virus, we should not forget the invisible children. Children may look less vulnerable from corona but may feel the heat heavily.

We cannot wait for the crisis to be over before we reach out to the children. Children should be ensured nutrition, protection and continuity of education. Discussion on policy, strategies  and line of action should begin now.

(Geeta Menon and Sanjeev Rai are development professionals specialising in education in emergency situations. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)