Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The Covid story of lost childhood -Ashwajit Singh

The Covid story of lost childhood -Ashwajit Singh

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Aug 4, 2021   modified Modified on Aug 5, 2021

-The Hindu Business Line

As our governments think and rethink lockdown measures and scheme policy interventions, it is time we, as a society collective, pay attention to our children on the brink of irreversible damage

What does it mean to lose one’s childhood to unsung labour? What is it like when books are replaced by bricks, playgrounds by agricultural fields, plastic toys with heavy-metal machines, alphabet recitations by silent cries of help? What is to have memories set in strife, solemn smiles, and tiny hands clasped in the chains of unquestioned slavery? Nobody knows. Because 160 million children worldwide, deep into an abyss of darkness and trauma, do not get to answer these questions.

A report published in June by the International Labour Organization and the UNICEF shows an increase of more than 8 million child labourers across the domain in the past four years, and over 9 million more children are expected to have lost their childhood by 2022.

Pandemic effect

As the pandemic would have it, in the first quarter of the year 2020 itself, over 370 million students kept away from schools, their essential dwelling grounds for an ambitious, educated future amidst an uncertain, often hostile, world. The situation got exacerbated further as state-sponsored policies like the Mid-Day Meal Scheme stood suspended in the event of the physical retreat of children from school, leading to a widespread increase in drop-out rates.

The concerns are further legitimised as a UN estimate shows that over 24 million students dropping-out of schools across the globe. Children in the poorest regions of India are, thus, facing a double whammy — the risk of illiteracy, as well as a clear denial of a nutritious meal, which had earlier acted as a pull-force for them to attend schools, defeating socio-economic compulsions.

The World Bank has predicted an addition of more than 12 million people in the below-poverty-line category in India during the pandemic. This, coupled with the reverse-migration of thousands of seasonal labourers due to lack of jobs in the city, has thrown the burden of fiscal adversity on the shoulders of children, now expected to support their families overcome this ordeal. Unreasonable market demand has made vulnerable children a part of the supply chain mechanism to supplement limited adult, skilled labour, in both urban and rural areas. These children have taken to hard agricultural labour, contractual work in brick kilns, and other industrial wage employment activities as a means to overcompensate for a phenomenon way beyond their control.

Please click here to read more. 


The Hindu Business Line, 4 August, 2021, https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/the-covid-story-of-lost-childhood/article35730054.ece?homepage=true


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close