Pune: The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated several problems faced by many countries in the world, including slavery and trafficking of children and child prostitution, Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi said on Thursday.
Addressing the media on the sidelines of the diamond jubilee celebrations of Armed Forces Medical College's graduate wing here, Satyarthi said there is a challenge to provide freedom, better education, better health to every child. "Due to the pandemic, many problems existing in India and the world have not only been exposed but exacerbated. Slavery of children, trafficking, child prostitution, and online child sexual abuses have increased alarmingly. This is a serious issue that has not been dealt by the international community with the required sense of urgency and resources," he said.
"Around 200 million people have already been pushed into chronic poverty globally and another 40 to 50 million people will be pushed into chronic poverty due to the Russia-Ukraine war. It is creating crisis of food and fuel, break of supply chain etc for poor and marginal people in low-income countries," he added.
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Satyarthi said, as a member of the United Nations' 'Sustainable Development Goals', he found these problems to be huge and the need was to solve them through an interconnected world rather than isolation. Satyarthi said he and several others, including Nobel Laureates and world leaders, have formed a group demanding the creation of a global social protection mechanism to benefit children from low-income countries.
"Child sexual abuse, particularly digitally and online-enabled sexual abuse, is increasing alarmingly in India and globally. We had done research that when the first lockdown was in place, it was revealed that in a 10-day period, the demand for child pornographic material had doubled," he said. He added that National Crime Records Bureau data showed five children are subject to sexual abuse every five minutes and three are raped.
Asserting there was need for a strong specific law to tackle human trafficking, especially those involving children, he said a bill that had been drafted by his organization along with the government on the matter was pending. "It is imperative to have such an Act when we are celebrating the 75th year of our Independence," Satyarthi said.
He appreciated the Union government's move to increase the marriageable age of women from 18 to 21. Speaking on the New Education Policy, Satyarthi said he was supporting it as it may not be prefect but was an improvement on the earlier one. (PTI)
