Kindness is the New Normal in a Post-Covid World — Part 1
A 3-part series on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on India’s education system and an invitation to a new global movement in education — #WhatIf #KindnessIsTheNewNormal
Part 1: COVID-19 and its impact on children from marginalized communities
The United Nations has described the global scale of education disruption from COVID-19 as “unparalleled”. The 2019–20 Coronavirus pandemic has affected educational systems worldwide, leading to widespread closures of schools, universities and colleges. As of 13 April 2020, approximately 1.725 billion students have been affected due to school closures in response to the pandemic. According to UNESCO monitoring, 192 countries have implemented nationwide closures and 5 have implemented local closures, impacting about 90 percent of the world’s student population.
While students across the board have been impacted by the pandemic, it is important to explore the severe impact on children from marginalized communities in many countries of the global south, including India which, at 260 Million children, has the largest school going population in the world.
As we at Dream a Dream reached out to children and young people from marginalized communities, stark and growing inequities emerged. The problems were glaring and include:
Loss of Income and Livelihood
Parents in daily-wage labour, self-employment, working in informal economies and in local small-scale industries have lost jobs and livelihoods resulting in tremendous stress on the meagre or non-existent savings. Families with pre-existing debt or medical conditions have been further pushed into extreme poverty. There is a possibility of families losing their homes because they cannot pay rent and many families are already experiencing daily hunger. As schools re-open, if livelihoods are not secured, many children will drop-out of education because parents cannot afford the school-fees and other incidental costs.
Migration
According to the last available census figures, there are roughly 40 million migrant workers in India and the present ‘barefoot migration’ consists of around 500,000 to 600,000 people. Having lost income and livelihood in cities due to the lockdown, many families have chosen to migrate back to their villages. Some have managed to reach their villages, but a majority of them are stuck at state borders and are now living in temporary camps in less-than-humane conditions. The emotional impact of this on children will be manifold. Moreover, with no sign of improvement in their livelihoods, many may decide to stay back in the villages, further impacting children’s education in the long-term, including dropping out of formal education.
High levels of Anxiety
The uncertainty and the constantly changing situation have left many children anxious. Students are anxious about examinations and examination results and how that will impact their education. For some students who could not give their examinations, there is prolonged anxiety if they will need to give examinations when schools re-open. Questions like, ‘Will I be promoted to the next grade or will I have to continue in the same grade for another year?’ are paramount.
Forced to become Adults
In many families, with the loss of livelihoods, parents are overwhelmed resulting in a sense of helplessness. In such circumstances, children have had to play adult roles — taking care of their younger siblings, managing household chores, organizing food and taking decisions on behalf of the family. Children are not prepared to play these roles and yet have had to take them on in this unprecedented time.
Confusion and Misinformation
With very little and many a time contradictory information available about the pandemic, there is widespread fake news and rumours floating around that has caused tremendous stress and confusion. Children are asking ‘What will happen to me and my family? Will my parents die? What happens to me if I lose my parents?’
Heightened Violence and Abuse
Schools and Community Centres have been safe spaces and have kept children away from violence and abuse that is often prevalent at homes and neighbourhoods. Those safe spaces are no longer accessible. The Childline India helpline received more than 92,000 SOS calls asking for protection from abuse and violence in 11 days, a sombre indication that the lockdown has turned into extended captivity, not just for many women, but also for children trapped with their abusers at home.
Gendered Impact
All the above are likely to have more impact on girls as they become primary caregivers for their families. They would be expected to take on more adult roles in their families, bear the brunt of hunger since in many contexts’ men/boys are fed first, their education will be deprioritised compared to boys, and they are more likely to face domestic violence and abuse at home. We are likely to see a larger dropout of girls from the education system due to the underlining factors around the pandemic.
Loss of Dignity, Confidence and Self-esteem
The biggest fallout of this crisis has been the loss of dignity amongst individuals and families from marginalized communities; being treated like second class citizens in their own country as they lose their livelihoods, homes and access to food. They are further pushed to the margins of society because of their caste, class or religion and are being blamed for spreading a crisis that was NOT their doing. This is going to severely impact children’s sense of self, dignity, confidence and self-esteem and possibly also drive many children to self-harm and suicide.
Loss of Learning
In addition to all the socio-emotional factors outlined above, there is also the loss of learning due to the extended school closures. Being marginalized also means that the inequities in education are going to be enhanced because they don’t have access to digital resources and tools. While, it is heartening to see the volume of digital content, toolkits and resources that have suddenly become available, much of the population will not have access to it. A recent report by the Digital Empowerment Foundation indicates that 30% of our population lags on basic literacy and thrice that for digital literacy. Even if parents have a smartphone, they will not have the money to buy data packs and broadband bandwidth. Parents might not know how to use some of the digital tools on offer and honestly, this will be the least of their worries when they are grappling with more urgent priorities such as hunger and livelihoods.
Impact of Trauma resulting in Failure to Thrive
The recent news of a 35-year-old migrant labourer who committed suicide because he could not provide for his family (aged parents, wife and four children) has sent shockwaves across the country. One can only imagine the long-term emotional and mental trauma his children are going to grow up with. All the above outlined challenges faced by children/young people can and will cause tremendous trauma — mental, emotional and psychological. We know that sustained trauma in early-years (0–10 years) results in stunting and failure to thrive and the impact of failure to thrive can be seen for life. Children are going to carry this trauma into schools, and it is going to impact their ability to access content, engage in learning and build healthy relationships. The bigger question then becomes — how equipped are school systems to cope with large populations of children coming back to school with sustained and deeply entrenched trauma?
The Need for a Pause
Schools cannot go back to ‘business as usual’ at the end of this crisis. They cannot double down their efforts on pushing children to catch-up to lost time by stuffing syllabus down their throats. Schools will need to slowdown, create sustained and consistent efforts to help children reconnect with themselves, with each other and with the world. With enhanced care, compassion and empathy, children can begin to feel grounded and connected again. There is a definite need to re-imagine the role of schools and teachers in the life of children coming from marginalized communities, with the entire ecosystem becoming trauma responsive. Only then can we hope to overcome the impact of this crisis in a sustained manner.
Authored by;
Suchetha Bhat is CEO of Dream a Dream, an organization working towards empowering young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and flourish in a fast-changing world using a creative life skills approach.
Vishal Talreja is cofounder of Dream a Dream, an Ashoka Fellow and Eisenhower Fellow. He is also part of the Founding Team at The Weaving Lab, Catalyst 2030 and Karanga. Vishal also sits on the Board of Goonj and Partners for Youth Empowerment.
The Global Movement is being nurtured by The Weaving Lab and is now hosted at https://whatif-global.com/
