Samir Mathur
COVID-19’s direct impact on children would be seen in transmission of the infection to children and consequent health problems leading to morbidity. It is widely being held that children are safe from infection because of their young age and the implied inherently strong immune system. Statistically too, very few cases of children being affected by the virus have been reported. What has, however, been overlooked is that nutritional deficiencies and early childhood health issues, common in India, could well compromise the immunological status of a large number of children.
The virus’ nature and penetrative ability is still under study. Moreover, recent reports from the US (California and Texas) as well as anecdotal reports from India (Telangana) have shown that children in various age groups have been infected by the virus. There is no case whatsoever for lowering our guard when it comes to protective and preventive action concerning our children. In fact, a separate and focused policy and protocols need to be evolved for protecting children from this pandemic now.
An efficacious medical and public health response specific to children affected by the virus and equally important, to children with medical conditions other than COVID-19, must be on ground. No child is to be neglected even in these immensely stressed times. No child must die due to lack of attention during this pandemic. They are mankind’s future.
CSO Role
The role of civil society organisations, now and once the crisis blows over, would be to partner with the government in formulating child-specific medical response systems and policies for national emergencies and calamities such as the present one. Apart from discharging their more conventional function of spreading preventive awareness, the CSOs, during the crisis period also, provide a psychological support system to the families of frontline healthcare and essential services workers through digital contact.
Trauma
The coronavirus pandemic, in a way, represents destruction of a settled way of life and life processes. It’s effects are seen in the large-scale abandonment of habitats by laid off workers, their long marches back home, shutdown of manufacturing units and services on a huge scale, heavy restrictions on movement and physical activity, cutting off of social interaction, isolation experienced by individuals, removal from unexpected behavioral changes and so on.
These sudden and massive changes subject the sensitive minds, especially younger children, to excruciating trauma. Children are accustomed to a set pattern of life. This includes going to school, outdoor play time, socialisation with friends and family, meals at regular intervals etc. A pernicious impact of the coronavirus has been that children have been uprooted from their homes as well as from their normal life. They feel they have lost their playgrounds and schools. They are unable to comprehend the intensity and force with which these changes have overwhelmed the lives of their family members. A traumatised child is a devastated child. The trauma can scar his mind and fundamentally affect his ability to negotiate his own future.
CSO as healer
CSOs can play a critical role in softening and healing. This can be done through empathetic and nuanced counselling of both the child and his parents. DCS can develop meaningful recreational experiences for traumatised children using both modern and traditional modes of therapy. Extensive participation of volunteers would be required to reach out to traumatised children. This is a problem that should not be underestimated. Security must return to the mind of the child for him/her to have normal and meaningful development. CSOs will have to develop a creative approach to face up to this challenge
Mortality
The incapacitation or death of one or both the parents can be traumatic for a child. Although the number of deaths in India has so far been small, a child losing a parent to the coronavirus is a real possibility. Orphaned children are exposed to untold uncertainties and exploitations. They have to be protected. CSOs, therefore, have to be alert and during the crisis phase, provide orphaned children care and comfort and in case the children’s families are destitute, place them in childcare institutions as per procedure prescribed. We earnestly hope that the coronavirus will not cause much damage to life and our children will continue to have the love and affection of their parents for long.
Impact of school closure
The coronavirus pandemic has, due to the need for strict observance of social distancing and precautionary quarantines and other contagion control measures, directly impacted the economy. The effect of the government’s prohibitory and regulatory orders, particularly those which restrict movement, to control the virus has been so severe that India has experienced an economic shock. In the countrywide lockdown, all educational institutions, including schools at all levels, have been shut. The experience of learning, open to entire generations of school-going children, stands disrupted. The vast majority of children has no personal access to digital and Internet technology and is, therefore, deprived of possibilities of remote learning.
Two outcomes of this can be noted. First, due to a disruption in the teaching routine, the learning curve of students is getting distorted. Secondly, there is a disruption in the time cycle of the child’s daily life. He is confronted with long periods of inactivity and restriction of movement. In view of the lack of structured activity, he can easily become vulnerable to adverse social company and influences. The probability of his taking to crime and antisocial activities and substance abuse goes up. Unproductive time and bad company can push children towards attraction for and later to addiction to pornography.
NGO intervention
NGOs must take an active role in retrieving the lost ground for these drifting children. Their learning experience can be restored by running informal classes, and where digital technology is available, through lessons on mobile phones. NGOs would be required to adopt a systematic approach in which each affected child is connected with and provided with books and learning-cum-recreation material.
Nutrition challenge
A core feature in the nutritional health of a child in India is the mid-day meal (MDM) programme which is administered through schools. It ensures that optimum nutrition in the shape of proteins, vitamins etc are available to the child on a regular basis. The closure of schools will almost certainly lead to a disruption of this programme. This would inevitably affect the nutritional health of children. Most state governments have announced that the mid-day meal programme shall continue and that meals will be distributed door-to-door. However, there is a great deal of uncertainty.
It can be assumed that there would be a major impact on the long-term health of school students. In these circumstances, there will been a need to keep the supply lines of food intact and running so that children deprived of MDM are able to get food and required nutrition. This may require setting up kitchens by CSOs. We cannot allow malnutrition among children at any stage, especially during stressful times.
Coping with economic shock
An intense and destabilising shock has been delivered to the economy by this pandemic. In its Policy Working Briefs (2009), the UNICEF has described the effects of economic shocks and their impact on children. These observations are very relevant to the present crisis.
In responding to the present economic crisis as well as future ones, protecting children from the adverse impact of this crisis will be critical not only to advance their rights and break the cycle of poverty but to safeguard India’s future economic growth and human development.
To cope with the economic shock of declining incomes and unemployment, households adopt coping mechanisms which harm the children most. In many households children may drop out of school to save on household spending and increase income through child labour. A study shows that an employment shock to parents significantly increases the probability that a child enters the labour force; he drops out of school and fails to advance in education. A study of household expenditure responses suggests that households tend to react to economic shocks by cutting expenditure on education and health-related expenses.
Poor nutrition and education deficit lead to adverse physical and cognitive development consequences as a result of decreased schooling during times of crisis. A study conducted in Zimbabwe revealed that a child’s lifetime earnings reduce by 14 per cent. The impact of a crisis can limit the future earning potential of children and make it more difficult for them to move out of poverty as an adult.
These impacts can also be transferred from affected children to their future children, creating inter-generational transmission of poverty. One example is how mothers’ nutritional status gets transmitted to her child’s nutritional status. Poor health and nutrition, together with deficient care, cause a human development gap which in turn leads to an economic development gap. A UNICEF study shows that if children had developed to their full potential as adults, average incomes would have been 20 percent higher.
The author heads Bachpan Bachao Andolan.