Uttara J Malhotra

In the lockdown situation worldwide, a UNICEF report has warned against long term emotional and psychological damage that it would do to children of all age groups.

Spain which has seen the longest lockdown period since the beginning of March has started to relax it a little bit. But while the grown-ups are getting to go out and dogs can also be walked, the children have been seen to be the worst affected.

Parents have reported medical conditions of stress in their children. Some are so afraid and nervous of stepping out that they are refusing to come out of the confines of home space. Others are nervous about encountering police tracking devices which blare out warning signs, in the middle of play time.

Play time has been restricted to certain number of hours and to a radius closest to the child’s home. Spain and Italy has also observed instances where police is said to have shone flood lights into homes in the middle of the night just to check on residents.

According to a New York Times report, a study conducted by Miguel Hernández University (under review by the journal Frontiers in Psychology) has examined the psychological impact of the confinement on children in Spain and Italy. The reports are startling. About 90 percent of 431 Spanish parents surveyed described emotional and behavioral changes in their kids, including difficulty concentrating, irritability and anxiety.

According to child psychology experts’ world over, the lockdown situations are going to have the worst effect on older people and children. The longer this situation goes on, the more of a concern it is, WHO reports say, adding that while we are still living through it, there are simple and effective ways to help children cope.

The Spanish chapter of Save The Children has already interviewed nearly 2000 Spanish families and found that more than 40 percent children are showing signs of pent us stress and anxiety. According to psychologist, post traumatic disorders can show immediate reactions. But denial can have long term impact on individuals. These can include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea. While these feelings are normal, some people have difficulty moving on with their lives.

These are things which can definitely affect children as much. While Italy has been able to do some justice and allow time out to children for short walks, Spain has not done so. According to Anne-Sophie Dybdal, senior child protection adviser at the mental health and psychosocial support unit of Save the Children, “People who are outside regularly have a lower activity in the part of the brain that focuses on repetitive negative emotions. This is one of the reasons children can slide into negative feelings or even depression during the circumstances they are living in now.”

According to a UN report, “Children today face anxiety about the negative impact of the pandemic on their lives and their communities, and uncertainty regarding the future. Further, for children facing extreme deprivations in the sense of food security or freedom to socialize, acute stress is a resultant that can impair their cognitive development and trigger longer-term mental health challenges.”

From what is happening in Spain, there are lessons to be learnt by nations across the world. Countries, will seriously need to think out their citizen betterment strategies placing utmost importance on the mental health and well being of children.

The pandemic led lockdowns is redefining the European Union’s interpersonal relationships in different ways.

According to Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform, there is tension brewing from all directions of EU. The pre-existing east-west division has widened at the time of Covid-19 disease breakout across the European Union.

It is a known fact that there has been a growing rift between Hungary, Poland and at times other central European states with the rest of the Europe union. Both countries have been in logger heads with EU nations as they went out to reshape their countries’ court system and public service media.

The other facts that have led to bad blood includes the distribution of irregular immigrants (in the recent past some eastern countries have even refused to take any), targets for reducing carbon emissions, with the easterners tending to depend on coal; and the rule of law.

When the whole world is trying to forget its differences and come together, central Europeans are once again refusing to help with sharing funds with those worst effected in the Southern parts of the European Union. The former don’t wish to lose money from the EU budget to the southern countries most afflicted by the virus.

Sadly so and putting aside all sense of compassion, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has gone all out to say that the pandemic is being used as a justification for introducing rule by decree, exacerbating fears that he is creating a de facto dictatorship.

Additionally, the virus has been seen widening a European Union north-south gap as well. The pandemic has indeed taken this part of the EU back by a decade, it seems. This was time when the eurozone crisis had emerged. Germany, the Netherlands and their northern allies were reluctant to give substantial help to the southern countries in difficulty then.

History is repeating itself now and strangely, as the trend can be seen, the pandemic has struck the EU asymmetrically. The southern countries, particularly Italy and Spain, have suffered more coronavirus deaths than most others. No wonder, they have to cry out as they suffer from higher debt levels. Their suffering is further exasperated as their economy heavily depends on tourism, a sector badly hit by the pandemic.

The northerner does not want to help in the form of financial help, southerners are looking for the same. The south is looking for more Eurobonds or loans. But then, the south EU has already got a lot of loan to repay. The EU as a whole still plans to borrow money and then disburse it in the form of grants to the worst-affected countries.

EU leaders have agreed to set up a recovery fund to support the worst-affected regions. But it might be forced to provide more in the way of loans than grants, because the northern governments remain opposed to large-scale transfers to the south – a rather selfish strategy to not help. Wonder what would happen if the equation was to turn and the pandemic was to suddenly move to the North to the South!

Europe is desperate to get its tourism industry back into action. But the pandemic is not stopping itself from spreading. The European Union greatly depends on its tourism industry and is said to be trying to save millions of jobs that depend on this industry. It is estimated that in spending in 2020 before the lockdowns, cross-border vacation travel had been expected to generate 1.3 billion euros, or $1.4 billion.

It is confirmed that the European Union has now set out plans for a phased restart of travel this summer. The EU border controls have been gradually lifted with measures to minimise the risks of infection kept under check. These include wearing face masks on shared transport.

Iceland plans to open its economy by June 15. It depends heavily on revenue from its tourism industry. They are putting some restrictions in place. For example, international travelers must decide on arrival whether they want to pay for a corona virus test or spend 14 days in quarantine, according to a government plan presented.

Other EU nations are trying desperately to come back to work. Other countries around the world are also grappling with how to reopen businesses after the pandemic has forced half of the planet into some form of lockdown and ground the global economy to a near-halt. Most nations are figuring out innovative ways to get back work going but for industries like tourism and travel, there is no way out except to the conventional open and travel.

As EU finds the courage to open up, numbers of cases of contraction continue to escalate. Russia, now the country with the second-highest number of virus cases, recorded more than 10,000 new infections after authorities this week eased restrictions to allow some people back to work.

United Kingdom is one of the few nations which is trying to go back to normal and allowing people to go back to work. France, Italy and Spain are also opening up, but the danger of a second wave of contraction cannot be ruled out.

A recent statement by WHO officials warns the world that “Corona virus could be reality that never goes away.” That just means that this is going to be the new normal around which EU nations will learn to adapt and ensure their tourism industry continues to thrive.