Here’s How The Pandemic Might Lead To Higher Dropouts & Exacerbate Child Marriage

By Author: Magicbus USA
Total Articles: 4
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We have witnessed firsthand the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world. Not only has it pushed developed economies to huge losses but also afflicted individuals of developing countries. NGOs for youth development are working round the clock to ensure that the youth, globally, are able to cope up with this situation.

Not only that, schools globally too, have borne the brunt of this pandemic. School closures due to COVID-19 have affected more than 90 percent of the world's total enrolled student population of nearly 1.6 billion learners. School closures, due to COVID-19, have interrupted the education of approximately 1.6 billion children worldwide.

With schools and colleges yet to reopen worldwide, the question lingering on everyone’s mind is, would all students return to receive an education?

V.P. Niranjanaradhya, Fellow and Programme Head, Universalisation of Education, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru ...
... says, “With schools shut for nearly six months, we are already seeing children especially in rural areas helping their parents in MGNREGA schemes. The longer the gap in learning, the more disinterested they get and eventually exit the education system. It’s dangerous."

Simon Burgess and Hans Sievertsen, contributors of the IZA World of Labor, too, have explored to find more evidence regarding the long-term consequences of missing even a term of school. It explains how even a relatively short period of school missed could have consequences on the skill growth of children, raising the exigency of NGOs for youth development globally.

Another salient problem that is slowly rearing its head again due to the pandemic is the rise in the number of child marriages. Child marriage ends childhood. It negatively affects a child’s right to education, health, and protection. Poverty and lack of education fuel and sustain the practice of child marriages. This has seen a decline in the last few decades.

According to UNICEF, an NGO for youth development, the total number of girls married in childhood stands at 12 million per year globally. It also states, 115 million boys were married before the age of 18. However, according to a report by the international non-profit organization Save the Children, 2.5 million girl children — over and above a previously estimated 12 million — may be forced into marriages.

NGOs for youth development are striving hard to bring this issue to an end but in vain due to Covid-19. An unspoken and damaging effect of the pandemic is a spike in child marriages globally. The COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to disrupt the efforts made so far to end child marriage and result in 13 million more girls forced into early marriages between 2020 and 2030. Evidence of an increase in child marriages is already emerging from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, and Nepal.

The COVID-19 health crisis has exacerbated some of the leading social and economic drivers of early marriage, such as limited access to education, early pregnancies, and poverty. And so, NGOs for youth development work relentlessly to protect children's rights who deserve all the educational rights and better life ahead.

At Magic Bus, we have jumped right into action by ensuring that we help children to live independently and help them build a livelihood for themselves. Magic Bus takes children and young people that are facing problems due to their poverty such as child marriage and child labor to a more fulfilling life with a respectable livelihood.

By donating towards this cause, you will be empowering Magic Bus to work with children between 12 and 18. This would further help us successfully fend off these young kids' early marriage and child labor by providing them essential educational needs.

We, an NGO for youth development, are fighting with the crisis that children have to face every day to better their future. You can contribute to our self-made youth journey by making donations at Magic Bus or volunteering in our campaigns. A little help by your side can transform many lives of young ones!

“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future”