Alvi Muzna, Gupta Manavi
International Food Policy Research Institute, NASC Complex, Pusa, New Delhi, 110012 India.
Food Secur. 2020;12(4):793-796. doi: 10.1007/s12571-020-01065-4. Epub 2020 Jul 7.
A vast majority of the relief and rehabilitation packages announced in the months following the nationwide lockdown in India have focused on economic rehabilitation. However, the education sector has remained absent from this effort, including in India's central government's 250 billion dollar stimulus package. In this paper, we discuss the implications of lockdown-induced school and rural child-care center closures on education and health outcomes for the urban and rural poor. We especially focus on food and nutritional security of children who depend on school feeding and supplementary nutrition programs. We argue that the impacts are likely to be much more severe for girls as well as for children from already disadvantaged ethnic and caste groups. We also discuss ways in which existing social security programs can be leveraged and strengthened to ameliorate these impacts.
在印度全国范围内实施封锁后的几个月里宣布的绝大多数救济和恢复计划都侧重于经济恢复。然而,教育部门在这一努力中一直被忽视,包括在印度中央政府的2500亿美元刺激计划中。在本文中,我们讨论了封锁导致的学校和农村儿童保育中心关闭对城乡贫困人口教育和健康结果的影响。我们特别关注依赖学校供餐和补充营养计划的儿童的粮食和营养安全。我们认为,对女孩以及来自已经处于不利地位的族裔和种姓群体的儿童来说,影响可能会更加严重。我们还讨论了如何利用和加强现有的社会保障计划来减轻这些影响。