A GENERATION INTERRUPTED

Children born today might be the next development challenge for the world

- RICHARD MAHAPATRA

It is a different world for the 256 million children born in the past two years. In a pre-covid-19 scenario, their parents would have been relieved to bring them into a world where the current average human life expectancy is around 82 years. “At the start of 2020, more children were living to see their first birthday than at any time in history. Child mortality had fallen by 50 per cent since 2000. Maternal mortality and child marriages were on the decline and more girls were going to and staying in school than ever before,” says Henrietta Fore, executive director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). One could argue that those 256 million children would have indeed inherited a planet better suited for human life in comparison to a decade ago—had they not been born in the shadow of covid-19. The pandemic has dashed this generation’s hope of a better future.

When the viral infection broke out in late 2019, the entire focus of healthcare administrators and scientists was on adults and the older population WHO were more vulnerable to covid-19; children were considered to be the least affected by it. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between December 30, 2019, and October 25, 2021, under-five children accounted for just 2 per cent of the total global cases and 0.1 per cent of deaths; those in the age group of 5-14 years accounted for 7 per cent of cases and 0.1 per cent of deaths. But in just a few months, the pandemic began to show its myriad impacts on children which will have a lasting effect on their health, education, and ability to earn.