WHO: UNAVOIDABLE HEALTH RISKS TO CHILDREN

Over the recent years, there has been impressive improvement considering children's survival, nutrition and education. But presently, it is sad to notice that the progression in the indicators of child health and well-being seems to be stalled across Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs). Today, not a single country is able to provide all the required conditions to facilitate every child's growth with a healthy future.
There have been many reasons disclosed for the same. From infants to adolescents, each of them is subjected to uncertainties like climate change, harmful commercial marketing, unhealthy lifestyle and diets, pollution, injury and violence, conflict, migration and inequality. All these makes their future exposed to new health threats.
Some of the threats are as mentioned:
        •       Greenhouse gas emissions leading to climate change and ecological degradation existentially threatening the lives of all children. Children's lives today, and the future existence are at peril due to rising sea levels, extreme weather events, water and food insecurity, emerging infectious diseases, heat stress, large-scale population migration
        •       Vulnerability to adverse health issues due to air pollution (both indoor and outdoor) causing 7 million deaths per year (as of 2016). Air pollution is linked with poor childhood respiratory health, increasing the risks of cardiovascular ailments, obesity and other metabolic syndromes.
        •       Over 250 million children are risked when their developmental potentials are not met (2017). Climate related health risks are compounded amongst the 40% of the world's children; living in informal settlements where substandard housing, overcrowding, poverty, unhealthy living conditions and hazardous locations can harm their well-being.
        •       About 124 million children along with adolescents are vulnerable to obesity (2016), making it one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century.
        •       Exposure to commercial marketing promoting addictive substances and unhealthy commodities like fast food, sugar-sweetened beverages, breast milk substitutes, alcohol and, contributing to obesity, poor oral health, chronic illnesses and non communicable diseases.
        •       Road injury is the leading cause of death for children and young people.
        •       In 2018 more than 1 billion people were moved away as displaced, international migrants or as refugees including many children as a result of conflict, violence or inequity and lack of opportunities. Every year, more than a billion children are exposed to violence.

The World Health Organization urges to take immediate in order to address these threats.
Some of the measures to be taken to ensure their future are:
        •       Centering the child in every policy linked to the SDG agenda
        •       Fighting the climate crisis by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions.                Urgent action to reduce carbon emissions so as to keep warming below 1.5°C and implementing provisions of 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change
        •       A multi sectoral action coordinated at the highest levels of government
        •       Increasing funding and political prioritization of children, involving children and youth in the design of their future.
        •       Enacting new national and international regulations to curb away the baneful commercial marketing, including an Optional Protocol to UN Convention on the rights of the children
        •       Improvisation in reporting of data on children's health and well-being.
In response to these extreme adversities, The World Health Organisation had passed RESOLUTION WHA63.14 & RESOLUTION WPR/RC68.R3, to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing. It also endorsed a set of recommendations which call for global action on marketing to children of food and drinks high in saturated fats, trans fatty acids and free sugars or salt.
In 2020, a WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission published a report ' Future for the world's children?' based on the expertise of more than 40 child health specialists from around the world. The reports set out new threats to child health and provide recommendations to ensure children's present and future health.
The WHO-UNICEF Lancet Commission lays the foundations for a new global movement for child health that addresses the crises and presents high level recommendations that position the children at the centre of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

By investing in the child health, education and well-being, the society gains substantial returns.
Improving health and well-being in childhood benefits the individual throughout the life course and for the upcoming generations.