Tag:UNICEF

The rising child labour rate signals a regression: children are being diverted from education into work, simply because of economic precarity.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement this week that the continued exclusion of girls from classrooms was “a tragic violation of their fundamental rights.” She warned that the ban is denying an entire generation the opportunity to learn and jeopardizing Afghanistan’s future.

The launch, done together with the Ministry of Health and UNICEF in Bhutan,  coincides with UNICEF’s new global child nutrition report, which finds that overweight and obesity are rising fast among children, including in Bhutan.

UNICEF also called for more humanitarian aid and commercial traffic to come in to stabilise the situation and reduce the desperation of the population.

Nearly half of PM2.5 pollution in the worst-affected countries comes from the burning of fossil fuels, biomass, and agricultural waste – also major contributors to climate change. As extreme weather events worsen due to climate change, air pollution is expected to become an even greater threat, UNICEF warned.

The report states that 54 million students in India alone were impacted, primarily due to severe heatwaves that led to widespread school closures and changes in academic schedules.

The collapse of Afghanistan’s Western-backed government in 2021 and the Taliban’s rise to power have further complicated the country’s ability to address its climate challenges.

In 2014, the WHO certified India as polio-free after three years without a single case of wild poliovirus. This was a moment of triumph, celebrated globally as a landmark achievement in public health.