Covid-19 and its Invisible Toll on Children
Shahida Sultan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
July 24, 2021
Every 12 Seconds, a Child Loses Their Caregiver to COVID-19
COVID- 19 has left 35,800 children orphaned in Pakistan
COVID- 19 toll on children has been less observed and discussed since the attention has been on adults understandably. According to the global estimates, COVID-19 death toll is reaching over 4 million people now, among adults mostly. However, how the pandemic has affected children, left behind has been almost invisible.
A recent research by Rawlings & Hills (Word Bank, 2021) , published in The Lancet , has shed light on this issue bringing its magnitude and severity into the limelight. The study shows that by the end of June 2021, nearly 2 million children aged under 18 years have lost a mother, father, or grandparent caregiver who lived in their household. The study further estimates that currently for every 2 people die of Covid -19, 1 child is left orphaned, facing the death of a parent or grandparent caregiver. Another study estimates that “Every 12 Seconds, a Child Loses Their Caregiver to COVID-19”. .
The study shows estimates for Pakistan as well where 35,800 children have been orphaned due to the death of one or both parents . There is hope that the pandemic will end due to vaccines, it seems quite challenging to ensure vaccination for the larger population. Even though the government is providing vaccines, the common public seems reluctant to get vaccinated for various misconceptions due to lack of awareness.
COVID-19 toll on children - a matter of high concern, why?
Losing one or both parents or losing caregivers can have severe consequences for children. The estimates show that COVID-19 can lead to death within weeks, families have little time to prepare children for the trauma they experience when a parent or caregiver dies. In Pakistan, child trauma due to a death in family, is not even recognized, leave alone treating it. Studies show that children losing primary caregivers have higher risks of experiencing mental health problems; physical, emotional, and sexual violence; and family poverty. These adverse experiences raise many risks for children including child abuse, child labor, early marriages among young girls, suicide, infectious and chronic diseases specially in poor families and communities.
What needs to be done now?
The following key actions are essential for timely and effective response to orphaned children to ensure their care and wellbeing:
• The government should issue directives to register orphaned children and a data base should be developed to trace and support vulnerable children and families, specially in the context of COVID-19 deaths of adults. The COVID-19 deaths related data is already updated at government level and these orphaned children can be traced very easily.
• Especially National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) should enforce general child protection laws to support the orphaned children.
• Ensure that all people get vaccinated by using all possible means and ways. This can also mean enforcing penalties for non-vaccinated people
• Support remaining parents/grandparents and caregivers through cash transfer to support better child care; and child protection from any harm and violence, they might experience due to poverty
• Introduce child protection laws and strongly enforce them, educate people at scale through using all forms of media to raise awareness about child protection and child rights
• Child protection bureaus in each province and districts should be accessible and should proactively identify and support at risk children
• Introduce toll free numbers/helplines at mass scale to provide prompt reporting and response for violation of child rights
• Schools should be bound and should also be supported to enroll or to make referrals for all young out of school children in their concerned localities to ensure their access to education and protection.
• Community based Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes should be introduced by the government and support should be provided to those entities for child care, education and development.
• Community based child care homes/ boarding hostels can be encouraged with strict rules of child protection, to provide care and shelter to homeless children