Health, education, poverty and immigration are the main challenges for children listed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). Upon completing 75 years, the institution assessed that the world is experiencing the worst crisis for the group since its existence.
The diagnosis is in the report “Preventing a lost decade: Urgent action to reverse the devastating impact of Covid-19 on children and young people”, released this Thursday (9).
The document points out that over 100 million children have come to live in multidimensional poverty, when the agency compares the current figures to those of 2019. The total rose from one billion young people to 1.1 billion. This 10% growth is attributed by the agency to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Multidimensional poverty takes into account attributes that are not restricted to the economic issue, such as service offerings and different vulnerabilities. Executive Director of UNICEF, the American Henrietta Fore highlighted that the advances of decades can be lost in a few years.
“These gains are at risk. The Covid-19 pandemic has been the greatest threat to children’s progress in our 75-year history. As the number of children starving, out of school, abused, living in poverty or forced into marriage increases, the number of children with access to health care, vaccines, sufficient food and essential services decreases. In a year in which we should look ahead, we are going backwards”, he highlights.
The study found that around 60 million children now live in poor households, compared to the period before the pandemic.
In addition, by 2020, more than 23 million children lost access to essential vaccines – an increase of nearly four million from 2019, and the highest number in 11 years. The publication does not specifically indicate in which areas this population is concentrated.
The institution predicts that, if measures are not taken by government authorities to reverse the current scenario, many indicators will worsen in the coming years. According to the report, 50 million children suffer from acute malnutrition, a number that could increase to 59 million by 2022.
The impoverishment caused by the pandemic pushes this age group towards other vulnerabilities. The United Nations agency points out that child labor currently reaches 160 million children, a number that, according to the report, could reach 169 million by next year.
*Under supervision of Stéfano Salles
Reference: CNN Brasil
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