Nutrition, Mental Health, Trafficking - India's Children and COVID-19

The world is battling a catastrophe - and even though in its totality it is a health crisis, at its core, this pandemic is nothing more than a humanitarian one. As I write this, morgues are filling beyond capacity, families are shattering and our healthcare system is collapsing. India is writhing under the pain caused by COVID - 19, and as our attention remains fixed on the devastation caused by the virus, another pandemic looms in its shadow.

In March 2020, a hasty lockdown brought the country to a standstill. However, as we were distracted by the onset of this virus, India's social progress took a massive leap backwards. Children became the unlikely victims of this pandemic, battling problems often overlooked in the context of COVID - 19. The worst, however, was seen by the underprivileged.

According to UNICEF data, India witnesses 27 million births and 30 million pregnancies each year. However, with most health resources being directed towards COVID - 19, many pregnant women have struggled to receive the right requirements and the proper environment for healthy childbirth. With malnutrition being an enormous challenge for India in recent times, it is safe to say that the lockdown would have negatively impacted child nutrition and service even more. With the shutting down of schools and educational institutions, millions of children across India have also been deprived of Midday Meals, not only detrimental to their nutrition but also a factor relating to their enrolment in school. Children in India have also missed life - saving routine immunisation, another factor that could lead to life - long health issues.

In India, about 400 million people working in the informal economy are at risk of falling deeper into poverty due to the COVID - 19 pandemic. This severe economic distress for families has made young girls victim to child marriages, as girls seen as a liability for the family are married off quickly. Moreover, with no schooling opportunities and COVID - 19 restrictions, it has become easier for families to get their daughters married off in the presence of a few people, thus reducing the economic burden of a big wedding on the bride's family. Even before the pandemic, India was home to the largest number of child brides in the world, accounting for one-third of the total number. The pandemic has just made it worse. In 2020, Childline, a children helpline, reported a 17 per cent increase in distress calls relating to child marriages, compared to 2019.

The situation hasn't been better for young boys in such households either. The livelihood crisis has produced surmounting pressure on families, and most are forced to send their male children to work in hazardous, unhygienic conditions on minimum wages, just to support the family. In India, it is a criminal offence to employ a child for work. However, according to the last census in 2011, 10 million out of India's 260 million children were found to be child labourers. It was reported that child labour had remarkably decreased in the past decade, however, this pandemic has crumbled all that progress. Logically, with the lockdown shutting down businesses and establishments, child labour should have been close to nothing. However, between March and August 2020, Childline dealt with 6,800 cases of child labour.

All this has lead to a terrifying increase in child trafficking. Traffickers are exploiting the situation by targeting desperate families, and as priority is being given to COVID - 19 and defence forces are being stretched beyond capacity, crime detection has become more difficult. With judicial trials and investigations slowed down due to restrictions, traffickers are being able to operate with a lower risk of conviction. Moreover, it is not just the underprivileged children who are becoming targets of traffickers. Traffickers have shifted online, and are using the Internet to connect with children and lure them under false pretences. With most forms of education shifted to the digital mode, this online predatory game has increased during the lockdown, especially when young children are left unsupervised on their devices.

When it comes to education, there is absolutely no doubt that the sudden shift to digital learning exposed some gaping loopholes in our educational system. It created a widening digital divide, as the privilege of e-learning was not granted to many in our country. Nationwide, only 24 per cent of Indian households have access to an Internet facility. There is a poor level of preparation at the institutional level as well, as about 1. 2 million government and about 400000 private budget schools are ill-equipped to provide technology based learning to students. This pandemic has also seen expansive learning loss in children, with many younger children forgetting language or mathematical abilities taught to them previously. Such a gap can take years to fill.

With battles being fought on every front amid this pandemic, the drastic impact on the mental health of children is incomprehensible. It has been reported that the most common psychosocial problems among children and adolescents during the pandemic were inattention, clinginess and distraction. In the grip of the second wave, as many children lose one or both of their parents, there is a massive risk of PTSD in the long run. As child adoption agencies are scrambling to reach out to these orphaned children, there is an increased risk of trafficking and child abuse too. With such an overwhelming impact on children in this pandemic, we are more than fortunate to be sitting in our homes, safe from at least some of the chaos outside. As another girl in her tweens gets married off, or as another young boy returns home barefoot, or as the news of another death rattles us, we have something to be very grateful for.

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