Govt. should continue Rs. 5000 cash relief for families: UNICEF
View(s):The monthly 5000 rupee cash relief provided to families by the Sri Lankan government should be continued for the next six months in order to prevent further undernourishment of children, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said.
In the report “Lives Upended: How COVID-19 threatens the futures of 600 million South Asian children’’ issued this week, UNICEF said 30 percent of families surveyed in Sri Lanka have reduced their food consumption, in May 2020.
“Of these, over 80 per cent reported reduced consumption of proteins such as meat, fish, eggs and dairy products, and 54 per cent reported reductions in fruit and vegetable consumption. Given that before COVID-19, 39 per cent of children did not consume any iron-rich foods, this change in diet is likely to worsen malnutrition rates among already vulnerable children, with potential life-long consequences”, the report said.
UNICEF’s Sri Lanka Representative Tim Sutton said Sri Lanka’s response to COVID-19 had been remarkable, including the swift transfer of vital cash by the Government to millions of households in April and May.
“But as the impact of the crisis drags on, it is critical for Sri Lanka to continue—and expand—its good initial cash transfer response to support people for a further six months. This will help Sri Lanka’s economy recover quickly and it will have long term benefits for child wellbeing across the country,” he said.
Large-scale job losses and wage cuts have coincided with the loss of remittances from overseas workers and from tourism leading to children being pushed into poverty and insecurity.
“UNICEF projections show that over the coming six months as many as 120 million more children in South Asia could be pushed into poverty and food insecurity, joining some 240 million children already classified as poor,” the report said.
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