COVID-19 has resulted in a loss of income, livelihoods, and lives. The pandemic has taken a toll on people’s mental and physical health, exacerbated various inequalities, and has entailed profound reverberations in the home. Given the poverty profile of Bangladesh, even under regular conditions, households have carefully balanced and allocated resources available to them. Depending on the pandemic’s impact on their livelihoods and their resilience, families may be compelled to make hard choices between keeping their children in school, getting them married, and putting them to work. The choices have long and deep repercussions on the future life trajectories of these children. Any deprivations, risks, constraints, injustices, or inequities they might face during adolescence will be carried throughout their lives. The research was undertaken to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the capabilities related to the life trajectories of adolescents, particularly girls, through which the pathways to women’s access to justice can be better understood by policymakers and programmers concerned. The study finds some of the choices made by parents and female adolescents, led to greater vulnerability including the choice of early marriage. It led to increased risks for reproductive health complications and domestic violence. The decision to migrate to work taken by underage boys led to them going through informal and unsafe channels, and the kind of work they were going into was not safe either. COVID-19 also resulted in increased phone and internet access for adolescents, especially boys, although parents and adolescents, again mainly boys, had very little knowledge of cyberbullying, harassment or cybercrimes.
Authors: Sultan, Maheen; Huq, Lopita; Rahman, Khandker Wahedur; Arman, Md. Raied
Type: Policy Brief
Year: 2022
