The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says the Covid-19 pandemic has affected children on an unprecedented scale, making it the worst crisis for children seen in its 75-year history.
In a report released on Friday, UNICEF said the pandemic was challenging decades of progress on key childhood challenges such as poverty, health, access to education, nutrition, child protection and mental well-being.
While the number of children who are hungry, out of school, abused, living in poverty or forced into marriage is going up, the number of children with access to health care, vaccines, sufficient food and essential services is going down.
“In a year in which we should be looking forward, we are going backward,” Fore said. The report found that an estimated 100 million additional children were now living in poverty because of the pandemic, a 10% increase since 2019. Fore said that it will take seven to eight years to return to pre-Covid child poverty levels.
Further evidence from the report states that around 60 million more children are now living in poor households compared to those prior to the pandemic. Additionally, in 2020 over 23 million children missed out on their essential vaccines. This is a nearly 4 million increase from 2019, making it the highest number in 11 years.
“Even before the pandemic, around 1 billion children worldwide suffered at least one severe deprivation, without access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation, or water. This number is now rising as the unequal recovery furthers the growing divides between wealthy and poor children, with the most marginalized and vulnerable hurt the most,” Fore said.
Source: People
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