As India races towards achieving superpowerdom, our children are still far behind in terms of healthcare, education and other facilities. Children especially girls are faced with lack of educational opportunities, malnourishment, infant mortality and early marriages. The government spends less than one percent of its total expenditure on child protection and over 170 million children and adolescents continue to live in difficult circumstances in the country. Despite the country making major strides towards improving legal and administrative frameworks to protect and promote child and adolescent rights, total government expenditure on child protection remains low at only .034 percent, according to report.
As the world is observing Universal Children’s Day, it is time the authorities concerned must fulfill its promises that they would be doing everything to protect and promote children’s rights to survive and thrive, to learn and grow, to make their voices heard and to reach their full potential.
The statistics below makes a telling commentary on the condition of children in India and a concerted efforts need to be made both at multiple levels to improve their lot.
Indian children: Ground realities:
To meet these challenges, and to reach those children who are hardest to reach, we need new ways of thinking and new ways of doing - for adults and children.
- With more than one-third of its population below 18 years, India has the largest young population in the world.
- Only 35% of births are registered, impacting name and nationality.
- One out of 16 children die before they attain the age of 1, and one out of 11 die before they are 5 years old.
- 35% of the developing world’s low-birth-weight babies are born in India.
- 40% of child malnutrition in the developing world is in India.
- The declining number of girls in the 0-6 age-group is cause for alarm. For every 1,000 boys there are only 927 females -- even less in some places.
- Out of every 100 children, 19 continue to be out of school.
- Of every 100 children who enroll, 70 drop out by the time they reach the secondary level.
- Of every 100 children who drop out of school, 66 are girls.
- 65% of girls in India are married by the age of 18 and become mothers soon after.
- India is home to the highest number of child labourers in the world.
- India has the world’s largest number of sexually abused children, with a child below 16 raped every 155th minute, a child below 10 every 13th hour, and at least one in every 10 children sexually abused at any point in time.
As the world is observing Universal Children’s Day, it is time the authorities concerned must fulfill its promises that they would be doing everything to protect and promote children’s rights to survive and thrive, to learn and grow, to make their voices heard and to reach their full potential.
The statistics below makes a telling commentary on the condition of children in India and a concerted efforts need to be made both at multiple levels to improve their lot.
Indian children: Ground realities:
To meet these challenges, and to reach those children who are hardest to reach, we need new ways of thinking and new ways of doing - for adults and children.
- With more than one-third of its population below 18 years, India has the largest young population in the world.
- Only 35% of births are registered, impacting name and nationality.
- One out of 16 children die before they attain the age of 1, and one out of 11 die before they are 5 years old.
- 35% of the developing world’s low-birth-weight babies are born in India.
- 40% of child malnutrition in the developing world is in India.
- The declining number of girls in the 0-6 age-group is cause for alarm. For every 1,000 boys there are only 927 females -- even less in some places.
- Out of every 100 children, 19 continue to be out of school.
- Of every 100 children who enroll, 70 drop out by the time they reach the secondary level.
- Of every 100 children who drop out of school, 66 are girls.
- 65% of girls in India are married by the age of 18 and become mothers soon after.
- India is home to the highest number of child labourers in the world.
- India has the world’s largest number of sexually abused children, with a child below 16 raped every 155th minute, a child below 10 every 13th hour, and at least one in every 10 children sexually abused at any point in time.
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