150 mn more kids in poverty due to Covid: UNICEF

United Nations: An additional 150 million children globally have been plunged into poverty since the Covid-19 pandemic hit earlier this year, taking the number of children living in multi-dimensional poverty across the world to over 1.2 billion, according to a new UNICEF analysis.

The new analysis, which was done by UNICEF and child rights organisation Save the Children and published on Thursday, reveals that the number of children living in multi-dimensional poverty — without access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation, or water — has increased by 15 per cent since the start of the pandemic. This means that an additional 150 million children have been plunged into poverty since the pandemic hit earlier this year, it said.

UNICEF, in a release, said that the multi-dimensional poverty analysis uses data on access to education, healthcare, housing, nutrition, sanitation and water from more than 70 countries.

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