11 Nov 2010 14:49:00 GMT
Written by: AlertNet correspondent
By Nilanjana Bhowmick
NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - When cyclone Aila hit the coastal village where Naseema lived in May last year, salt water invaded the paddy fields and fisheries, taking away her husband's work as a day labourer.
Her children contracted skin infections and severe diarrhoea after using water from a contaminated tube well in the village. Having lost their meagre income of around $1 a day, the family had no choice but to leave their home of many years.
They moved from Simulhati in the Indian part of the Sundarbans - the world's largest stretch of river islands surrounded by mangrove forests, which lies partly in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal and partly in Bangladesh - to the nearby town of Minakhan. With no money coming in, Naseema, 38, had to pull her children out of school and send them to work.
One daughter, 12, is now a domestic maid, while her son, 13, is a carpenter's apprentice in Kolkata. Naseema and her husband work in a brick kiln in Minakhan.
The storm destroyed the livelihoods of six million people, dimming the future prospects of many children who were forced to migrate with their parents and give up their education prematurely - as with Naseema's family.
The risks of disasters for India's children are expected to increase as the earth's temperature rises at an accelerated pace, bringing more extreme weather and rising sea levels. Aid agency Save the Children warned in a November 2009 report that climate change is the biggest threat to children in the 21st century.
The report says global warming has led to an increase in natural disasters, which in turn is affecting the lives of millions of children especially in developing nations.
With the number of natural disasters expected to rise by 320 percent worldwide in the coming 20 years, Save the Children warns that climate change will hit children from the poorest communities - especially under-fives - the hardest.
In India, figures for 2007 provided by the U.N. children's fund UNICEF show that more than 38 million people were affected by natural disasters, including earthquakes, floods and drought. Of these, more than 17 million were children aged between six months and 14 years.
Besides the direct injuries and increased exposure to diseases caused by disasters, the disruption to children's lives and the emotional turmoil they suffer often have long-term implications for their health and wellbeing.
"In a post-disaster situation, most or all of the foundations in a child's life may suddenly collapse or weaken," said UNICEF emergency specialist Sarbjit Singh Sahota. "The children who are enrolled in schools may find their school damaged, destroyed or used for shelter. The parents or guardians may be stretched between caring for the needs of their children and securing shelter, livelihoods and other needs for the family's recovery."
DISEASE THREAT
According to Save the Children, climate change will reduce poor communities' access to water, limit their ability to grow nutritious food, push up food prices and allow malaria mosquitoes to spread.
Lack of clean water will make it even harder to tackle diarrhoea - one of the biggest killers of young children in India. Two million Indian children die each year from preventable diseases like diarrhoea, malaria and malnutrition. A fifth of under-five child deaths are caused by diarrhoea, according to Save the Children.
"Lack of adequate sanitation and hygiene practices is a major problem in India, with over 650 million people defecating in the open every day, and it becomes more dangerous with increasing population and climate change effects," UNICEF's Sahota told AlertNet.
The U.N. agency wants the Indian government to add children's needs into its emergency operations plan. Humanitarian and development experts also argue that governments in both donor nations and countries that receive aid should adopt specific measures to protect children from the impacts of climate change.
"Children in developing countries are not responsible for climate change. Yet they are the hardest hit by it," said Thomas Chandy, chief executive of Save the Children in India. "It is the responsibility of rich nations that have been emitting greenhouse gases for centuries to help poor communities in developing nations to adapt to the effects of climate change."
Chandy also urged New Delhi to acknowledge the link between climate change and child survival struggles, and make this a policy priority - in his view, a necessary step to meet the fourth U.N. Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality by 2015.
"Climate change is no longer a distant, futuristic scenario, but an immediate threat," said Chandy. "The evidence is clear and mounting, yet the link between climate change and child survival struggles to command public and political attention."
'HOLISTIC' CLIMATE POLICY
According to India's 2008 national action plan on climate change, government spending on adaptation to climate change exceeds 2.6 percent of gross domestic product. However, a 2010 study by aid group Oxfam and the non-profit Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability puts the figure at just 1.7 per cent.
The study found that, in 2009-10, 80 per cent of the adaptation budget was allocated for programmes to boost human resilience, including poverty reduction, disease control and risk management, compared with just 0.5 percent for conservation of natural resources, water management, flood control and forestry projects.
However, there has been no separate allocation for measures to protect children from weather-related disasters or longer-term climate shifts, making it impossible to determine how much has been spent on this vulnerable group.
R.R. Rashmi, joint secretary of the environment and forests ministry, says his department prefers to look at broader needs when it comes to helping communities cope with climate change.
"The needs of particular groups are met through normal developmental programmes through the concerned ministry. We don't feel there is a need for a separate funding programme for children," Rashmi said. "What is needed is a holistic programme that will take care of all vulnerable groups, including children, and that's what we have been focusing on."
Freelance journalist Nilanjana Bhowmick writes for a range of international news outlets, and is editor of Shetizenjournalist.com, a citizen journalism website for women.
Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.