Corona Virus: Fear of Third Wave & Children

There are conflicting views about the third wave of Corona. According to an estimate, the third wave of Corona will target children. Whereas according to second estimates, the third wave will not have much effect on children.

Extremist thinking about the third wave will either make us careless or put us in depression.

Meanwhile, a commendable decision of the government has come to give priority to the life safety of children by cancelling the 12th examination.

We have to deal with the pandemic with our balanced conscience. In times like these, the compassion-right vision of the Buddha empowers us.

Buddha had said, ‘Appa Deepo Bhavah.’ Every Indian has to become his own lamp to save the children so that the ‘flame’ of a small lamp is not extinguished.

Otherwise, the darkness will spread till the child’s future of our nation. Therefore, given the apprehension of imminent crisis, it is prudent to get involved in the preparation of rescue. Courts have repeatedly warned governments and governments have issued protocols.

It is the duty of the citizens to follow the advice of doctors and warnings of experts seriously.

However, AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria’s relief statement came that ‘there is no sign of children getting affected much in the third wave.’ In contrast, in Uttarakhand, there is news of a corona outbreak in three thousand children up to 18 years in just 45 days.

However, very few children had the chance to be taken to the hospital. But the figures of 99,006 children getting infected in Maharashtra are worrying.

Three per cent of these children may have to be admitted to hospitals.

It is good that the Prime Minister has advised paying special attention to villages and children in the third wave.

The Chief Minister of Delhi has said to order 6000 oxygen cylinders from China, out of which 4,400 have been imported.

The Yogi government of Uttar Pradesh has also announced to provide security cover to the children even before the third wave arrives. Orders have been given to vaccinating the families of children below the age of twelve without registration and those above 18 from June 1.

The claims and preparations of the governments are in their place, but the ground reality is worrying. There are not enough doctors in the village and countryside and there is a huge shortage of child specialists.

This shortcoming cannot be removed overnight, as the backbone of primary education and medical care for the villagers is already broken. Corona has increased the concerns of parents, doctors and governments.

The crisis has also come to those children whose parents have been killed by the first or second wave.

Not only is there the problem of their rehabilitation, in the meantime, there are indications of child-trading gangs also becoming active. There have also been reports of some parents selling their children due to increasing poverty during the Corona period.

Children are the future of the nation, but in the absence of ‘willpower’, the mistake of not considering the children of the deprived sections as the future of the nation stands as an example of the past.

Child malnutrition, physical abuse, orphans and poor children’s lack of education remained in the dark. Today, the constitutional institutions are taking cognizance of the issues of children, so the reason for this is the provision of child rights in the constitution.

Despite this, lakhs of children are illiterate and unable to get quality education under the dual education policy. Sonia Gandhi has written a letter to the Prime Minister asking for free education for the orphaned children in Navodaya Vidyalaya.

Barring Delhi, in the states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, etc., the poor condition of public schools, hospitals and child protection institutions, which have been hit by privatization, has been exposed by the media during the Corona period.

On the one hand, there are orphans, who have lost their parents in the first and second wave, while in the third wave, the children themselves are feared to be infected. There is a need to adopt a new commission, a new policy for the protection of children.

The government will have to revive the government schools especially in rural India and open free quality education schools for the education of common children. Donations and money from religious places should be used to increase the budget for education and health.

Investment in education will give returns in the form of the development of the nation. Otherwise, whatever the government and NGOs may say, it is a proven experience that no orphan and poor child will not be educated in a commercially profitable school, a private hospital will not save him.

It is feared that the children killed by Corona will not be able to recover for decades. What kind of life will those who lose their childhood get? The good thing is that the number of people returning to their homes after getting healthier than the children coming to the hospitals is increasing.