Maharashtra Governor C. P. Radhakrishnan along with UNICEF Maharashtra Chief Sanjay Singh and UNICEF youth advocates released the report, ‘The Future of Children in a Changing World’ | File Photo
Mumbai: Demographic shifts, environmental crises, and frontier technologies would be the megatrends to influence children’s future till 2050, said the latest ‘The State of World’s Children 2024’ report released by UNICEF.
Maharashtra Governor C. P. Radhakrishnan along with UNICEF Maharashtra Chief Sanjay Singh and UNICEF youth advocates released the report, ‘The Future of Children in a Changing World’ on Monday and discussed the challenges and opportunities for children in the present context.
The report looks ahead to 2050 and examines three global megatrends-demographic shifts, climate and environmental crises and frontier technologies that are anticipated to fundamentally reshape children’s lives, rights, and opportunities between now and mid-century.
The report projects that by 2050, the global child population will stabilise around 2.3 billion, with a significant shift in regional distributions. India, China, Nigeria and Pakistan are expected to account for more than a third of the world’s child population by 2050.
India will have approximately 350 million children, despite a decline of 106 million compared to today. Investment in education, healthcare, child benefits, energy, biodiversity and skill development for children and young people are critical to addressing the challenges.
C. P. Radhakrishnan said, “The findings from the report are particularly important for India as it is projected that the country will be home to 15% of the global child population. Maharashtra being the most progressive state in India, must plan for the future so that children can achieve their full potential. In Maharashtra, we need to meet the challenges by continuing child-centric investments in health, quality education, skilling and job opportunities, bridging the digital divide for equal access to technology.”
The report said that while nearly one billion children live in countries at high risk of climate hazards, this figure is expected to rise dramatically without significant interventions. Children are highly vulnerable to climate and environmental crises, especially those who live in drought prone, coastal and low-income communities in urban slums, submerged areas with an anticipated eightfold increase in exposure to extreme heatwaves and significant risks from floods, wildfires, and cyclones.
These climate-induced challenges worsen vulnerabilities impacting their health, education, and access to safe water. According to the Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI), in 2021, India ranked 26th out of 163 countries globally, with children particularly exposed to risks such as extreme heat, floods, droughts and air pollution.
Sanjay Singh said “Climate and environmental hazards can have profound effects on children’s education. Climate shocks can close, damage, or destroy schools, hindering children’s opportunities to learn and grow. Since 2022, more than 400 million students around the world have experienced school closures due to extreme weather.”
He added that Maharashtra is one of the most vulnerable states to extreme hydro-met disasters in India and ranks third in the climate vulnerability index. 33 out of 36 districts are exposed to extreme floods, cyclones, droughts, and their associated events, making millions of people in the state vulnerable to extreme climate events.
The report also said that frontier technologies like Artificial Intelligence offer both promise and peril for children, who are already interacting with AI embedded in apps, toys, virtual assistants, games, and learning software. But the digital divide remains stark.
According to the report, over 95 per cent of people in high-income countries currently are connected to the internet, compared to nearly 26 per cent in low-income countries. The impact of these megatrends on children will be determined by government investments in child survival and life expectancy, socioeconomic development, education, gender equality, conflict, urbanisation, and the environment.
The State of the World’s Children 2024 called for meeting the challenges and opportunities posed by the megatrends by investing in education, services, sustainable and resilient cities for children, expanding climate resilience in infrastructure, technology, essential services and social support systems and delivering connectivity and safe technology design for all children.
