Children’s day Special: Childhood in the COVID Age
It is 14th November and we all know that in India, this day is seen as Children’s Day as it is the birth anniversary of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, who is famously known as Chacha Nehru, the beloved uncle of children. So, to begin with, I would want to extend the warm wishes of Children’s Day to all the children out there and at the same time, would want to narrate a tale of childhood, children are getting amid the COVID age.
A few days before COVID, I met Kartik, a student of grade 3, from a well reputed school of Delhi. Kartik is a bright student, equally interested in studies, sports and co-curricular activities. Before COVID, I remember that he talked to me about how much he loves playing football and cycling. During the initial days of the Pandemic, he told me how unoccupied he has been until his classes started happening digitally. Well, I observed Kartik’s changed lifestyle and felt really disappointed by the kind of education and lifestyle he has been getting. And in Kartik, I was able to see not just him, but all the children of his age who are not just surviving a pandemic but also becoming slaves to digital screens without them knowing it.
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Since last 4-5 Months, Kartik has been attending his classes online.He generally gets up at 7:30, brushes his teeth and sits for his Online Mathematics class at 8:00 a.m. along with 40 other students who join remotely from their places. At around 8:30 a.m. his mother serves him with some light snacks which he takes while taking his class.
The mathematics class is followed by English and Hindi, each of 1 hour duration. After a morning 3 hour binge of classes on a screen, at around 11:00 a.m. Kartik takes a bath, enjoys his breakfast, and looks around to do something and ends up playing some games on his mother’s mobile phone.
When I was talking to Kartik about what he does on his mobile phone, he said, he plays games with his friends, games like Carrom board, Car racing etc. He even Said that a few of his friends even have their own mobile phones and I should request his mother to buy him one.
When I spoke to Kartik’s mother, she said “What will my child do when he couldn’t not go out for school, meet his friends and think of family outings. He is just 10 and he gets bored. I try to say NO when he asks me for my phone, or switch on the television, but ever since the pandemic, I have become helpless as when I ask him to not use them, I feel like he barely has got any replacement. And when classes are heading online, how to even preach that the screens are not very healthy for him.”
At 3:00 p. m. he sits to check out his homework and PowerPoint Presentations that his teachers might have asked the students to watch/ study. Where Kartik didn’t really say that he didn’t do his homework diligently, Kartik’s mother said that it is at times a challenge to make him stick to studies only, especially when there is no teacher around.
In the evening, Kartik attends his tuition on an online meeting app, followed by his having dinner watching some of his favourite cartoons on the television. He then sleeps around 10:30 performing a drill of events online, making 6-8 hours, his regular screen time.
This was Kartik’s story. But was he Kartik, or was he just Kartik? Well, in him, I was seeing the children of this generation. Where on one end, I feel the grief of the children who have not got their basic needs met, my thoughts are even with the children who have everything, yet are falling for something as attractive as magnet, the Digital Screens.
Where Kartik’s screen time is more than 6 hours, it is very likely that most children have been sharing similar time. The screen time for children in the age group of 5 to 15 years has shot up by 100% since the first lockdown. 84% of parents are worried about the increase in screen time for children due to the pandemic and social distancing norms, according to a survey by OLX India. The survey was conducted with parents of kids in the age group of 5 – 15 years to understand the rise in screen time of their kids and their level of awareness and preparedness in helping them be safe online, reports The Economic Times.
Well, when we are celebrating Children’s Day, we really feel bad about the kind of living, the children and the future generation is subjected to. Precisely, we aren’t banishing technology, but obviously, excessive of everything is bad, not just for their physical health but for their mental and social well being too. So, here is a plea from One World News– teach your children from the very beginning, the right use of technology. Tell them how much it affects their health. Young minds are inquisitive and technology is limitless. Hence, if they come to explore it, they might soon fall for it, which is just not healthy.
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