The heroicness of children

Think of a child in lockdown! I can only imagine a caged bird, trying so hard to be freed. I can imagine, I can see, because I have three of them!  

A child is always like a little scientist, always exploring, trying new experiments and new things, making new friends, finding new places, flying like birds in an open meadow, following the butterfly or simply roaming around the community from dawn till dusk! And now, their childhood is being lost because of a thousand instructions and set of rules of social distancing due to the pandemic.

COVID-19 holiday (lockdown) was fun for the first few days for the children. No school, relaxed study hours, comfortable sleeping times, waking up and going to bed late, movie time (for the privileged ones), or longer playtime. Some even travelled with their parents during the first few days of the government declared holiday. Children of working parents were extremely happy as they got to enjoy the company of both their parents, perhaps for the very first time of their lives, or at least after a very long time!

But as the duration of the lockdown and the number of people infected increases, so does the burden on children. They are locked up within the confines of the four walls. Online classes, continuous dos and don'ts and no friends. These are seriously impacting their mental state.

Think of the children who are not privileged, living in urban slums or under the open sky. Most of the parents of these slum children are now jobless due to social distancing and lockdown. For these working families mostly comprising of domestic helpers, day labourers and garments workers, the miseries cannot be solved just with immediate relief. They have no work, no income, and very depressingly, no savings! These families are already starving, including the children. To them roaming around is no longer fun. And to those sleeping on the roadside, starving may be a bigger threat than the virus!

A couple of days ago, I was reading an article which said that children with disabilities are having a tough time and becoming increasingly restless during this lockdown. On top of that, the medical facilities available to them are very limited.

Violence against children is on the rise, whereas the scope to report them has declined. Apart from this, children are also exposed to increased family violence, mostly violence against women. In both cases, children are directly and indirectly affected.

In rural areas, where agriculture is the main source of income and nutrition of the family, children are also being severely affected. Farmers are not getting the appropriate price for their crops or other products. People are predicting that there could be a severe food crisis in the upcoming days, which these families are already struggling with—as on the hand they are not receiving fair payment for their produce, while on the other, crops are getting wasted due to their inability to deliver them to the appropriate market. Families are selling off their cattle for cheap to support their basic needs, leaving them even more vulnerable. Children's food and nutrition and other basic rights are being hampered. In early April, a destitute mother threw five children into the river Ganges in Uttar Pradesh as there was no food due to the lockdown! I couldn't even read the news; I didn't even dare to.  

Whenever I see Facebook statuses of how bored people are getting due to the lockdown, or of mouth-watering food they are making and enjoying (I am not against people posting food photos), I think about the children who are starving and going to bed hungry or the mother who threw her children into the river. Whenever I see posts mentioning how tough life has become—to manage work and household with kids as the kids are restless—I think about the children who are running pillar to post with their parents to get some relief!

Children are wonders! If they are happily causing mischief at home, be happy for that, be happy that they are healthy, that they are having a meal, that they are at home, complying with tons of different instructions.

All the children out there or at home, they are the real heroes and fighters of COVID-19. Because they are compromising their childhood and the memories they get to make because of this pandemic.

Humaira Sultana is a development communication expert.