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'Lost generation' fears as COVID-19 locks out India's poor students

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Nivrita Ganguly, Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="School students get their temperature taken as part of safety protocol against COVID-19 before entering a school after authorities relaxed the lockdown norms and reopened educational institutions in Amritsar on July 26, 2021. Narinder Nanu, Agence France-Presse" src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/tvpatrol/08/03/amritsar.jpg"/><figcaption>School students get their temperature taken as part of safety protocol against COVID-19 before entering a school after authorities relaxed the lockdown norms and reopened educational institutions in Amritsar on July 26, 2021. <em>Narinder Nanu, Agence France-Presse</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>C.S. Satheesha spells out &quot;A-P-P-L-E&quot; into his phone as he teaches remotely from the only place he can get a signal— a treehouse in his back garden in southern India.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/04/21/galvez-ph-could-become-the-next-india-without-ecq">READ: Galvez: PH could become ‘the next India’ without ECQ</a></li></ul><p>In the Kodagu district of Karnataka state, 8-year-old Shreeshma listens to Satheesha&#x27;s WhatsApp voice notes on her mother&#x27;s phone on her porch and repeats sentences such as: &quot;This is a cat.&quot;</p><p>But in a country where schools have been shut for over a year, one of the longest shutdowns in the world, she and her fellow pupils are among the lucky ones.</p><p>According to UNICEF, only one in four children in India has access to digital devices and the internet.</p><p>Many families have sold belongings or taken out loans to buy smartphones for their children to continue their education.</p><p>In some rural areas, kids have been trekking miles up hills and through snake-infested jungles to try and connect to their teachers.</p><p>Jean Dreze, a welfare economist, said that the situation is bound to exacerbate the already &quot;extreme inequalities&quot; in access to education that reinforce India&#x27;s class, caste and gender divisions.</p><p>&quot;By and large, privileged children are able to continue learning through online education. For poor children, however, online education is a fiction, and no other arrangements have been made for them in most states,&quot; Dreze told AFP.</p><div><strong>Dropping out </strong></div><p>Even before the pandemic, more than six million Indian girls and boys were already not going to school, according to UNICEF.</p><p>Almost 30 percent of those who did go dropped out, with rates for girls and for children from the most marginalized communities higher still.</p><p>The pandemic and the heavy blow to the Indian economy— and to the poor who have suffered most of all— have only made things worse.</p><div><strong>WATCH</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1673604" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>With breadwinners out of work, many families have had little choice but to make children drop their books to help make ends meet.</p><p>Anecdotal evidence suggests that there has been an increase in child marriage— meaning one less mouth to feed— and trafficking too.</p><p>The fear is that many children will not return to education even when schools eventually reopen, creating a &quot;lost generation&quot; of unqualified young people.</p><p>&quot;If they feel they cannot catch up, they&#x27;re less likely to go back to school,&quot; said Terry Durnnian, chief of Education, UNICEF India.</p><div><strong>ONE PHONE BETWEEN THREE</strong></div><p>At 60 weeks and counting, only five other countries have seen schools shut for longer than India, affecting 320 million children, according to UNESCO.</p><p>The continued closures contrast with restrictions easing on most other areas of activity in India.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/07/15/21/indias-covid-19-infection-rate-edges-up-with-second-wave-yet-to-abate">READ: India&#x27;s COVID-19 infection rate edges up, with second wave yet to abate</a></li></ul><p>Bablu Baghel in Agra— home to the Taj Mahal— saw his monthly income of 20,000 rupees ($270) all but dry up along with visitors to India&#x27;s top tourist attraction.</p><p>The taxi driver&#x27;s three children have to share his mobile phone to remotely attend their classes. He cannot afford to buy another device.</p><p>&quot;This is all we have,&quot; Baghel told AFP, adding that mobile data charges, once the world&#x27;s cheapest, have soared, hiking the price of streaming lessons.</p><p>Imran Salmani, a barber in Agra, saw his earnings shrink 80 percent and now cannot afford to re-enroll his two girls in the new school year.</p><p>Their school sends WhatsApp images in lieu of lessons, with parents expected to teach their children and submit videos of their classwork, a task both have struggled with.</p><p>&quot;I want to give my daughters all the opportunities I never got,&quot; Salmani told AFP. &quot;We are not managing to keep up.&quot;</p><p>&quot;I want to go back to school,&quot; said Salmani&#x27;s 9-year-old daughter Aliya.</p>

The pandemic and the heavy blow to the Indian economy -- and to the poor who have suffered most of all -- have only made things worse.

'Lost generation' fears as COVID-19 locks out India's poor students

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'Lost generation' fears as COVID-19 locks out India's poor students

Nivrita Ganguly,

Agence France-Presse

Published Aug 05, 2021 02:57 PM PHT

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