National: School Dropouts and Domestic Violence: Encinas on Impact of Pandemic on Children

@ Expansión Política

On August 19th during AMLO’s morning press conference, the Undersecretary for Human Rights and Migration, Alejandro Encinas, presented the results of a study that, in coordination with institutions and agencies of the Federal Government, was carried out to evaluate the impact that the pandemic has had on boys and girls in Mexico. He stressed that the study was done “with the aim of establishing a set of public policies and actions that place the human rights of children at the center of attention.”

Some of the most relevant data have to do with the number of students who did not enroll in school due to causes related to the pandemic or lack of resources, raising the number to 5.2 million students. He also mentioned the decline in enrollment in basic, upper secondary and higher education, that is, the proportion of children and young people who entered the school system for the first time.

On the other hand, between March and June 2021, historical maximum levels were registered in family violence. “Girls, boys and adolescents suffer from psychological, sexual, physical, economic violence and abandonment or neglect within their homes”, the undersecretary reported.

The report also shows that during the pandemic there were 273,661 births of babies to teenage mothers; 4,401 homicides of minors between 2018 and 2020; and suicide increased 12 percent in this age group.

In recent months, the study “Global Minimum Estimates of Children Affected by Orphanhood Associated with COVID-19 and the Death of Caregivers”, carried out by The Lancet, reported that in Mexico 131,325 children and adolescents are orphaned as a result of COVID, with Mexico being the country with the highest figure worldwide.

“From the field of Human Rights and the protection of the best interests of children, we consider it urgent to open spaces for coexistence and education that allow girls and boys to begin to compensate for the effects of confinement”, he explained.

For more information in Spanish:

Conferencia de prensa (Vídeo) Unicef acompañará estrategia de retorno seguro a clases. Conferencia presidente AMLO (19 de agosto de 2021)

El COVID-19 ha dejado a 131,000 niños huérfanos en México, estima The Lancet(Expansión política, 22 de julio de 2021)

México: la epidemia de Covid-19 ha dejado huérfanos a decenas de miles de niños (RFI, 5 de agosto de 2021)

Encinas: En pandemia, 5.2 millones de alumnos dejaron la escuela y subió la violencia familiar (Proceso, 19 de agosto de 2021)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: exigen justicia en el caso del asesinato de un niño de menos de dos años supuestamente a manos de su padrastro

Las Abejas Report Death of Displaced Girl from Rio Jordan (May 3, 2021)

National: “The Mexican State Abandoned its Childhood” – REDIM 2020 Report (January 17, 2021)

Chiapas: No Child or Adolescent Should Die from Preventable or Avoidable Causes, Melel Xojobal (November 5, 2020)

Nacional: REDIM presenta análisis sobre el impacto de la pandemia en los derechos de la infancia (August 13, 2020)

Chiapas: Publication of Results of Survey “How Are the Children and Adolescents of SCLC Experiencing the Pandemic?” (July 27, 2020)