Dr. Gajendra Singh is a Medical Graduate and Public Health Specialist with 16 years of diverse experience in Health System Strengthening in Program Management (Immunization, Maternal & Child Health, Family Planning, Reproductive Health). Other co-authors Divya and Raveena Venkatesh are MSc students at Global Healthcare Management, Coventry University, UK.4
This article attempts to examine the effect of the disaster on children, the policy framework around it, and ways to improve the coordination mechanism for a better outcome.
Introduction
Disasters primarily affect the present generation but are equally unfair to future generations as most children suffer in silence. The impacts are more pronounced for children in poor countries, many of which have the fragile infrastructure and governance systems, or suffer from conflict. The capacity of these countries to prepare for a disaster is usually weak, and without urgent action, children’s well-
being gets disproportionately affected.
Floods destroy schools, community buildings, and health centers. During droughts, children, especially girls, spend less time in school because they must walk miles for water. Rising sea levels and frequent cyclones displace families. Children experience high rates of anxiety and post-traumatic stress under such circumstances, and these psychological stresses can affect their cognitive development. Children are more vulnerable to the impacts of a disaster than adults. For example, they can experience malaria or malnutrition deadlier.
Climate and environmental disasters also destroy homes, displace families, force migration, and even kill children’s parents or caregivers. Such climate-driven social and economic deprivation during childhood and adolescence can have lasting effects, making it difficult for children to escape poverty later in life. It’s a very natural fact that when you get short of something for some time then it’s the human tendency to reduce the usage till gets replenished. Children’s vulnerability revolves around material wellbeing, emotional well-being, and social well-being. In case of disasters, all three get compromised hence families reduce the usage of materialistic things and redirect energy for reaching the prior level which results in less time for focusing on emotional and social wellbeing.
Children’s physiology, developing organ systems, conduct, knowledge of and reactivity to traumatic events on an emotional and developmental level, and dependency on others to meet their basic needs are all different from adults. Children are more likely to experience negative effects from exposure to environmental hazards such as particulates or droplets, whether from debris or biological or chemical threats, due to their rapid minute ventilation, large surface area relative to body mass, more permeable skin, and proximity to the ground.
Acute stress reactions, adjustment disorders, depression, panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, childhood-specific anxiety disorders, and psychotic disorders are common mental symptoms in children. Subclinical symptoms and comorbidities are also frequent. Children are at a crucial stage of development where exposure to toxins can have serious consequences. Due to the greater cell division and longer lifespan of youngsters, exposure to toxins and radiation can induce DNA damage and raise their lifetime risk of developing cancer. Children could lack the necessary skills to avoid dangers, or they might even seek them out of curiosity or a lack of risk awareness. Lack of comprehension of the disaster’s nature can also cause tension, dread, and anxiety, as well as an inability to manage and an excessive reaction to media coverage. Developmental regression, withdrawal, clinginess, tantrums, enuresis, or somatic problems are just a few signs that can result from any of these reactions. Children may be put in danger if their special requirements aren’t taken care of before a disaster, which would cause morbidity and physical and emotional stress for both the children and the adults who are caring for them.
Impacts of Disaster on Children
Every year, 17 lakh children under five years of age get killed by environmental factors and nearly half the world’s children (about a billion) live in countries facing extremely high climate risks where they grow up in increasingly dangerous conditions. It’s well established over years that worldwide with the increase in the frequency of disasters, consequences on children have a debilitating effect on their health, lifestyle, and education. In other words, almost every child is exposed to one of the forms of disaster – natural or manmade, climate change, or humanitarian crises. The most common cause that threatens any human being in particular children are natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, and landslides. Natural disasters contribute the highest to the number of children being displaced around the world. For example, in 2015 the earthquakes that occurred in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan displaced many thousands of people in particular the children who were deprived of basic health and education for quite a period.
Natural disasters are more frequent in recent decades than in the 1990s
Another detrimental cause for the children to face problems is conflicts and violence prevalent in the region and the consequences that follow. According to global agencies, nearly 426 million children live in live conflict zones around the world highest number seen to date. With the increase in conflicts, violence, and climate-related hazards the number of children and adolescents displaced increased by a record 10 % to 25.2 million by the end of 2021. Previously the numbers were 23 million in 2020 which is been on a steady rise since the beginning of the pandemic. The ongoing crisis in Ukraine will surely rise this figure in 2022. The recent and ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine has displaced nearly 1 million children to a risk of existence.
A high rate of child displacement has recently been seen in countries going through civil strife or conflicts like Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the war-torn country Afghanistan. For the past decade, Turkey is hosting millions of Syrian refugees of which half are children. Many of them live outside of camps where they lack basic essentials; such as education, safety, and health a right of every child.
Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction convened in 2022 for children highlights a significant challenging time for children and young adolescents in the present and future times. They along with the adult and elderly population are facing the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which may vary from short-term to long-term depending on the impact it has left on the individual and his family, and community.
According to the World Health Statistics 2022, globally children below 5 years contribute to nearly 2.5%of cases of COVID-19 and contribute to 0.1% of death due to the disease. On the other hand, due to the prevailing consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of school-going children faced the loss of learning either due to dropping out of school or the closure of schools. Institutions and policies around the care of children in Disaster
Recognizing that the World Health Organization (WHO) collaborates closely with other members of the international community, such as the United Nations Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, UNDP, UNICEF, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Red Cross, and Red Crescent Societies, and plays a significant role as a member of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction system and as the health cluster lead in the framework of humanitarian reform.
UNICEF functions on a system-strengthening approach to DRR and recovery. It engages children and young people in disaster management committees as key stakeholders; Promoting and carrying out Comprehensive School Safety (CSS). Setting up systems and capacities for shock-responsive social protection, including cash transfer mechanisms, gathering evidence on disasters and gender-based violence, and Providing families with Covid-19 mental health support. The main driving force for children’s welfare is arising from UNICEF Globally. They along with their partners in the field collaborate work on a local, national, and international level in joint coordination. They are engaged with them on DRR(Disaster Risk Reduction) and climate action. UNICEF works closely with young people and supports organizations at multiple levels. It is vital to adopt a “hotspots” strategy that focuses on high climate-risk environments rather than just a country or regional approach and helps the most vulnerable and at-risk children and families get ready for migration or relocation.
A declaration was approved on November 5, 2016, as a result of the first Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) since the adoption of the Sendai Framework. It was signed by the heads of state, ministers, and delegations of the nations in Asia and the Pacific. The Philippines’ government, through Republic Act No. 10821, is committed for providing children with emergency aid and protection before, during, and after disasters and other emergency circumstances. It describes circumstances that seriously threaten or jeopardize children’s lives and interfere with their ability to survive and develop normally. The Act’s guiding principles are those of survival and development, child participation, and compliance with the Children’s Charter for Disaster Risk Reduction, as well as the basic criteria for children in humanitarian action.
Some of the agencies extend their support to children’s welfare around the world.
l Children in a Changing Climate (CCC): It’s a combination of humanitarian organizations and child- centric development groups dedicated to sharing knowledge and working with children to make them ready to face shocks and stressors. They advocate child rights on global platforms. l Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector (GADRRRES): strengthens global coordination, increases knowledge, and advocates for risk reduction education and safety in the education sector, including through the Comprehensive School Safety Framework. l Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC): This is a humanitarian forum of the UN. It gives guidance on offering guidance on child-sensitive DRR and resilience-building within United Nations System programming. Its main effort is to protect children and young people from sexual exploitation and abuse.
l Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) in coordination with IASC is committed to protecting children from sexual exploitation, and abuse within all humanitarian response operations by providing technical support, resources, and partnerships. l Sendai Stakeholders Children and Youth Group, the DRR working group of the Major Group for Children and Youth (SSCYG/ MGCY): is the primary facilitator for the engagement of young people in the work of UNDRR and the implementation of the Sendai Framework.
In Kazakhstan, UNICEF operated a school-based volunteering program with 900 schools where young people first learned about reducing disaster risk, going plastic free, and being green. They, later on, went on to become volunteers for the cause.
In Madagascar, UNICEF supported the government in developing child-centered disaster management plans at the subnational level nationwide to reduce the risks and impact of droughts, floods, and other hazards. Prepositioned supplies and used an integrated climate risk management approach to ensure rapid and sustainable response based on evidence and forecasting.
In response to the European refugee crisis, UNICEF supported establishing Blue Dot centers with help from local partners to provide the children with basic amenities like food, clothes, safety, and protection for unaccompanied children. Recently in Ukraine, UNICEF is ensuring access to health, psycho-social, and education for children and providing education to the displaced children along with the Ministry of Education.
In the United States, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the CDC, the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Administration for Children and Families/Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response are the federal agencies with primary responsibility for addressing children’s needs in disasters.
How we can do better
During disasters, safeguarding the interest of children and protecting them from violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation is critical in disaster response. It’s often missed, neglected, or not adequately addressed. Children are predominantly susceptible to effects and changes happening during and after the disaster. Marginalized groups concentrated in developing countries commonly struggle to cope with the impact of the disaster. Being a centralized portion of those marginalized groups, they need to be included as a priority in resilience interventions. These should be followed by governments, donors, communities, development, and humanitarian partners, to ensure adherence to the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The primary issue which resurfaces, again and again, is underestimating the level of the possible impact on children. Hence, demographic details on children and marginalized groups should be collated and analyzed, preferably disaggregated by age, gender, and disability.
Child-focused disaster funds can ensure access to decent education, shelter, food security, healthcare, and foster care for those children who need it. Such efforts would need to be integrated with existing social assistance initiatives. A national database that records exposure to climate or natural hazards, along with socioeconomic vulnerability, should be used to underpin eligibility criteria for social assistance programs. Such a system could effectively prioritize children exposed to high climate risks, giving them access to all resilience initiatives through a single registry. Eligibility systems would need to be complemented by a well-functioning, decentralized, transparent, and accountable delivery mechanism. A crucial element to look upon in such a system is to make sure that children could access help. For example, a national phone helpline number. Children are not part of any phase of disaster response like the preparedness, response, and recovery phase. Ensuring their participation can give insights into developing provisions in the post-disaster phase.
Programming for children in disaster should be ensured in all relevant laws, regulations, and policies, especially for disaster preparedness. If these provisions are already there, the focus should be on enforcement which often gets missed during critical times. It can be best ensured by coordination
among local authorities, NGOs, self-help groups, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, and other relevant stakeholders. The local first responders can be trained for the child- focused response.
Long-term planning for children can include a wide range of activities, such as structural measures that protect children from disasters and training and evacuation planning for children, or engaging children in planning and designing activities at the school or community level. These measures do help reduce children’s vulnerability to some extent. However, there is a need to combine DRR, humanitarian and adaptation actions into strategies to anticipate, prepare for, cope with and recover from climate impact. Actions may need to go beyond ‘business-as-usual’ to be effective. It is also essential to improve mental health response systems. The most harmful psycho-social spiritual impact of climate disruption comes when compounding impact causes persistent and overwhelming stresses. We must proactively build the adaptive capacity of families, schools, local institutions, and entire communities in order to underpin children’s economic, social, psychological, and environmental well-being. Often most of the efforts focus on children in families and institutions like schools, hostels, etc. But we need to go further and reach children who are even more vulnerable. Children in poor households, those from marginalized communities with poor social networks, orphans, or disabled children are more
vulnerable.
Participating in and contributing toward climate change action provides children with assurance and self -confidence, which itself is a form of resilience building. Experiences of children combined with external knowledge and information can lead to sustainable and locally-suitable adaptation strategies hence avoiding maladaptation. Ensuring marginalized families and their children are heard in decision-making bodies is an important issue of inter- and intra-generational justice. Local institutions need to integrate child-focused thinking into their local adaptation, so as to ensure long-lasting impact. Indeed, participatory processes and whole-community efforts will bolster impact by fostering a sense of ownership from all stakeholders. Child-centered initiatives need to target the underlying barriers and constraints that make children particularly vulnerable.
Local disaster workers can offer most post-disaster mental health therapies in the community. The most frequently used forms of psychological intervention that can be delivered to groups include supportive counselling, cognitive behaviour therapy, brief trauma/grief-focused psychotherapy, and play therapy. Even though various drugs are being used, information regarding their effectiveness is still developing Care for children in disasters is a multidimensional concept and needs a joint and inclusive approach involving vulnerable families and children. Actions are needed locally and must be augmented with complementary actions from mainstream/government initiatives. This should involve continuous andwell-structured dialogue, coordination, and engagement among relevant organizations and networks.
Reference:
1. https://www.unicef.org/eca/emergencies
2. https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/pdf/3986.pdf/
3.https://www.unicef.org/media/120621/file/UNICEF%20DRR%20in%20Action%20%20Every%20country%20protected.%20Every%20child%20resilient.pdf
4. https://data.unicef.org/topic/climate-change/overview/
5. https://reliefweb.int/report/world/conflict-climate-disasters-drive-number-internally-displaced-children-record-25-million-2021
6.https://www.unicef.org/media/120636/file/UNICEF%20DRR%20in%20Action%20%20Every%20country%20protected.%20Every%20child%20resilient.pdf
7. https://www.preventionweb.net/publication/lessons-learned-implementing-integrated-child-protection-and-disaster-risk-reduction