(Daily News Scan - DNS English) The Future of World's Children
Children are the future of this world and they have the right to a world with less of environmental and health issues. But, a recent report titled, A Future for the World’s Children? Says, not a single country is protecting their children’s health and environment. The report has been released by a Commission of more than 40 child and adolescent health experts across the globe. World Health Organization, UNICEF and The Lancet are credited for the formation of this commission.
In this DNS we will know about the report in detail.
The report, ‘A Future for the World’s Children?’, finds out that the health and future of every child and adolescent around the globe is under threat. This threat is from ecological degradation, climate change and exploitative marketing practices that boost the sale of processed fast food, sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco.
The report assesses 180 countries, to ensure whether the youngster of these countries can survive and prosper in various conditions. Within this report, India has been ranked 77th on the Sustainability Index and 131st on the Flourishing Index.
The flourishing Index is the geometric mean of Surviving and Thriving. Within this index, the authors took note of maternal survival, survival in children younger than 5 years old, suicide, access to maternal and child health services, basic hygiene and sanitation and lack of extreme poverty. Some other domains like, educational achievement, growth and nutrition, reproductive freedom, and protection from violence were also looked into.
The sustainability Index ranks countries on the basis of the target set for 2030 excess carbon emission. This helps in finding out the countries contribution to sustainability in future. Under this Index, it was noted that promoting children’s condition to thrive and survive should not be at the cost of eroding future global conditions for children’s ability to flourish.
Coming toward the status of India, the report states that although the country has tried to maintain and improved in health and sanitation, the spending on health needs to be increased. However, in the global scenario, the number of obese children and adolescents has increased from 11million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016. The children in Central African Republic, Chad, Somalia, Nigeria and Mali face the worst odds. The Children in Norway, The Republic of Korea and the Netherlands have the best chance at survival and wellbeing.
There are few countries like - Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay and Vietnam, that are capable of being on track to beat the CO2 emission target by 2030 and child flourishing measures.
Norway leads the table for survival, health, nutrition, and education, followed by South Korea and the Netherlands. In the bottom we can find Central African Republic, Chad and Somalia. Among the worst 10 emitters of CO2 are US, Australia, and Saudi Arabia, whereas lowest emitters are Burundi, Chad and Somalia.
Every child around the globe faces existential threats from climate change and commercial pressures. To protect children from being obese at an early age a new global movement driven by and for children is needed.
Specific recommendations regarding stopping CO2 emissions with the utmost urgency, to ensure children have a future on this planet; placing children and adolescents at the center of global efforts to achieve sustainable development. Also new policies and investment in all sectors to work towards child health and rights; incorporating children's voices into policy decisions and tightening national regulation of harmful commercial marketing, supported by a new Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are few recommendations which need to be kept in mind for a better future of the children.
