A catastrophic pandemic for India’s children
The TLDR: A flurry of data shows that the pandemic is putting children at risk in every conceivable way. They are being sold into bonded labour by desperate parents, or in the case of girls, pulled out of school and married off in a hurry. Online child sex abuse is rising to alarming levels. According to UN estimates, 300,000 may die over the coming year due to hunger, poverty and disease. And the World Bank warns that school closures may permanently damage their futures.
The latest numbers
Indian Express analysed distress calls made to the national helpline for children between March and August. It found:
- The helpline received 2.7 million distress calls, and officials made 192,000 ‘interventions’ to rescue a child.
- These included 32,700 cases of trafficking, child marriage, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, begging and cyber crime.
- Also: 10,000-plus cases of child marriage. As an official notes: “The number is significant considering the lockdown restrictions, with lack of permission for social gatherings and functions.”
- The helpline reported a 17% spike in distress calls related to child marriage in June and July compared to 2019.
- In poorer states like Jharkhand, child trafficking increased by 600% during the lockdown.
Point to note: While the number of calls were lower than last year, the number of interventions were higher. This indicates that a) the cases are more serious, and “that more children are in distress” and b) children are not making the call because they are giving in to their parents’ “cry for help.”
Why is this happening?
Short answer: both children and parents are desperate and therefore more vulnerable.
Child labour
The background: The problem is hardly new. In India, 33 million children under the age of 18 work illegally in industries like mining, construction, garment fabrication and tobacco production. But the collapse of the economy is pushing millions of families into poverty—and desperate parents are turning to their children for help. And an over-stretched and distracted police is making it easier for traffickers to prey on these families.
The potential damage: For the children, the damage to their future may be permanent. As one child rescue organisation notes:
“Trafficking from villages back to cities has started in earnest. From August 12 to September-end, we were able to stop 78 buses, and 300 children from getting trafficked. There are many more who are coming with their parents…many of these children used to attend school in their villages (before the lockdown).”
A telling example: Pankaj Lal, a rickshaw puller in Bihar has five children to feed but has lost almost all his income. He agreed to send his 13-year-old son to work in a bangle factory in Rajasthan for Rs 5,000 a month. Here’s how he describes the heart-breaking decision:
"My children had not eaten for two days. I volunteered myself to the trafficker, but he said nimble fingers were needed for this work and I was of no use to him. I had almost no choice but to send my son away."
Child marriage
The background: According to a recent global report, 500,000 more girls will be pushed into child marriage this year alone thanks to the pandemic. That Covid effect will last at least five years—resulting in a total of 2.5 million additional child marriages worldwide.
India already accounts for one-third of all child marriages. But the pandemic incentivised child marriage in unexpected ways:
One: Schools—which offer an important safeguard against parental pressure—have remained closed. As one social worker notes: "In extremely poor communities, girls are already not encouraged to study. Once they leave school it's hard to convince families to get them back in."
Two: The mass return of male migrant workers to villages has triggered anxiety: “So parents of young girls—worried for their safety and anxious about their future prospects—are marrying their daughters off to ensure their wellbeing.”
Three: The rules of social distancing—and limits on social gathering—has made weddings unexpectedly affordable: "It was easier, cheaper and they could get away with inviting very few people."
Online sex abuse
The background: A global report released in April revealed that India is the #1 source of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) found online. We account for 11.7% of the nearly 2 million reports collected by US-based The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Higher demand: Social distancing and other restrictions on movement have pushed vast numbers of pedophiles online. In April, The India Child Protection Fund reported a 100% increase in searches for child pornography—that’s double the 5 million/month searches in November/December. More alarmingly, the demand for violent content—for videos where children were choking, bleeding, tortured, in pain or screaming—grew by 200%.
Easier supply: The pandemic makes such abuse easier since kids are spending vast amounts of time online and are increasingly isolated and vulnerable. As one expert explains:
“Most of these videos are recorded by family members and neighbours. Many are created by children themselves, who sometimes also sell these to make some quick money. Many of the children are also groomed online where they are convinced to perform cybersex.”
A grim future
Apart from the immediate threats to our children’s well-being, the World Bank warns that the pandemic may do permanent damage to their future, as well. School closures will result in 5.5 million dropouts across South Asia. But even those who stay in school will incur significant losses in learning:
“Children have been out of school for approximately five months. Being out of school for that long means that children not only stop learning new things, they also forget some of what they have learned.”
That loss will, in turn, erode their ability to earn: “The average child in South Asia may lose $4,400 in lifetime earnings once having entered the labour market, equivalent to 5% of total earnings.”
The bottomline: In June, an urgent UNICEF report warned that 881,000 children under the age of 5—and 36,000 mothers—could die over the next 12 months in South Asia. The projected number for India: 300,000. Our children’s lives are literally on the line.
Reading list
Indian Express has an analysis of the child helpline data. BBC News and The Guardian have more on the rising number of child marriages. IPS News has a must read on the reality of bonded labour in India—especially of children. Feminism in India has an in-depth piece on online child sex abuse. Also a must read: New York Times’ in-depth investigation into global online abuse. We did a detailed explainer on the UNICEF report. The Hindu reports on the World Bank assessment.