BY PROF (DR.) YASIR HASSAN RATHER and ZOYA MIR

I carried my favourite bag to my class in March 2020, I played without fear with my friends long way back; hugging my friends, sharing our meals it doesnt happen anymore. I have been seeing my friends, but on the other side of screen we still attend the same class just the togetherness isnt felt. We call it a class but its not the same anymore... Our elders are calling it the new normal. But how can I like it? This new normal has detached me from my friends, from my school, from my space, from my development. Its not my fault, but I am supposed to grow in it. And yet smile! I am a child with not so normal life to adjust with! Still, I am labelled as too sensitive; Am I?

Children having a healthy family environment, children with special needs, children in juvenile homes, children in orphanages, children engaged in child labour and children who are underprivileged - all have been affected by covid-19 pandemic. We tried to find ways to handle the crisis and somewhere found ways of coping with the situation, creating social networks and lifting up spirits of each other in difficult times but children were imposed with a system of education where they missed out on their most important stage of development; growing up with other children, learning from the togetherness, taking turns, learning from fights and accepting individual differences.

As time passed, Covid-19 started transforming the lives of children. The pandemic and the associated policies like confinement and social distancing were put up as priorities and it touched every childs world.

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Lets Celebrate the Day! - Greater Kashmir