Children in India vulnerable to climate change: PwC Report

Mumbai: Children in India would be vulnerable with climate change and that a strategy needs to be implemented urgently to tackle this, a PwC report said.
The report-- Protect a generation: Climate security for India’s children— said that there are some eight ways through which policy makers could address the child related climate change considerations.

“Disadvantaged and vulnerable populations (including children), indigenous people and local communities dependent on agricultural or coastal livelihoods are at a disproportionately higher risk of adverse consequences due to climate change,” the report said. And children bear the brunt of climate change as it affects their fundamental rights of survival, protection, development and participation, it added.

The report by Bidisha Pillai CEO, Save the Children, India and Jaivir Singh Leader, PwC’s Global Office for Humanitarian Affairs Vice Chairman, PwC India Foundation, focussed on some of the Indian states and the impact climate change is having on them.

The report states some key findings about the impact. In Morena and Purulia, West Bengal, indebtedness of many households due to poor agricultural productivity led to children dropping out of schools. In Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, the decrease in groundwater level affected the availability of drinking water and dehydration (20%) was common among children and in Haridwar, parents complained of an itching disease after the floods.

The report suggests a roadmap for future implementation of strategies for tackling the problems related to climate change to ensure safety of children.

“Comprehensive adaptation planning should result in the development of a portfolio of climate change adaptation opportunities that can be mainstreamed in the policies, plans and programmes of the country,” the report said.

India needs a policy framework for mainstreaming child-related climate change considerations, it said. This would include multidimensional resilience—that is adaptation strategies have the potential to generate economic, social and environmental benefits, it said.

Apart from that participatory and decentralised planning, collaborative climate action ecosystem, convergence with existing policies and actions, pooling of funds and sustainable interventions and last-mile delivery become important too.