Critical Gaze at Children’s Personal Experiences during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In the context of gender-based violence and child abuse during the Covid-19 pandemic, not much has been said about children and especially how they feel and what their experiences were during the resultant lockdowns. People have been more concerned about being locked in their houses and the destruction that Covid-19 caused worldwide. Since children have not been given a space to express their concerns and feelings about Covid-19 and lockdown itself, this article seeks to understand children’s lives during lockdown through exploring and critically engaging with their poetry written during the Covid-19 pandemic. Several poems around the world have been collected and various themes have been detected that are representative of children’s experiences and frustration during the pandemic. This article closely reads these children’s poems and argues that children, like adults, have been severely affected by this pandemic, as some have lost their parents. The article also depicts children as equally frustrated as they miss going to school, holidays, meeting friends, and other things that children do.