There are times when, even if you wanted to, you cannot just look away from reality. It stares at your face so hard that you cannot even blink, let alone look the other way. The only recourse, perhaps, is to desperately wish away the reality. But can you really wish it away? Think about it from a different perspective. Think about the current situation from the perspective of the children!

For adults, the world has changed. But children have no idea about what this world is all about or what the world has in store for them! The COVID-19 pandemic has taken away any chance for them to know the world.

Cooped up at home, their world is increasingly becoming someone else’s experience — a world that exists on the screen. There are stories of alienation of different shades. The alienation is expected to leave a permanent mark on their psyche. And then there are other horror stories to think about.

From toddlers to about-to-be young adults, the reality is entirely different from what we had experienced while growing up. Think about the kids who haven’t even seen the inside of a classroom! What are they learning? Who are they sharing their feelings with? How are they making friends?

Put in the form of questions, the answers come back in the various hues of negatives.

A Class 11 boy was missing from his virtual class for quite a while. Normally, his absence in a classroom would have been noticed. A caring teacher might even have gone to the student’s home. But these are COVID times. Everybody is challenged. There were attempts to call him up. There was no response. Then, his teachers and friends learnt that the boy’s entire family had tested positive for COVID-19. The Class 11 student had to take a call on his father’s hospitalization all by himself. His decision was a shade late. He managed to get his father to a hospital but could not save him. He has been scarred for life.

Under normal circumstances, he would have had his friends, their parents, his relatives and teachers by his side physically. But, in the physical distancing world of the pandemic, he is alone looking after his mother and sibling, trying to figure out what went wrong.

This is not an isolated story. Think about the children left orphaned by COVID-19. These are the extreme ones but are happening in large numbers. Those who are spared these extreme experiences are also suffering. A parent loses his job as his employer cuts costs. Gloom descends on the home, and, for the child, there is no escape into the comfort of a friend’s company. A virtual meet is no substitute for a hug.

The digital is robbing them of a proper education—how many children can afford mobile phones and laptops for a virtual class? A parent’s job loss is opening the door to hunger.

The world has started taking note of it. But given the priority of fighting COVID-19, the issues related to children are taking a back seat. A worried Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director, recently said: “The number of children who are hungry, isolated, abused, anxious, living in poverty and forced into marriage has increased. At the same time, their access to education, socialization and essential services, including health, nutrition and protection has decreased. The signs that children will bear the scars of the pandemic for years to come are unmistakable”.

This is not the story of India alone. This is the story that has become a global scourge, creating uncertainty that may continue to haunt us much beyond the day the pandemic dies out. It’s a threat that’s not going to die. It would remain the legacy of COVID-19.

We must join hands and act. We need to do it for the sake of our children.