Sixty-five years after Independence, millions of Indian children are yet to be freed from the bondage of malnutrition, child labour, lack of education and child abuse. Their wait to enjoy their childhood and realize their full potential seems to be getting longer with every passing anniversary of our Independence.
Almost every second child in India faces some level of malnourishment. Almost 40 per cent of Indian children are underweight, and 45 per cent are stunted due to malnourishment, according to the National Family Health Survey-3. The survey also reported that six out of every 10 children from the poorest households are stunted, and almost as many are underweight.
According to the figures filed by BBA in its PIL, over 1.7 lakh children had gone missing between January 2008 and January 2010. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, one child goes missing in India every eight minutes. Forty per cent of these children will never be found and will end up as mere statistics in an ever growing list of missing children in this country, children who are picked up from streets, from outside their homes, from railway stations, even from hospitals as newborns. Many of these children will end up trafficked, either as cheap labour, or to beggar syndicates or into the sex trade.
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 enrol, 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.
The very survival of the Indian child is a matter of concern. Around 2.5 million children die in India every year, accounting for one in five deaths in the world, with girls being 50% more likely to die.Eighty-seven children of every 1,000 born still have the probability of dying between birth and 5 years of age.
One in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India. The major cause is lack of public health services in remote and interior regions of the country, poor access to subsidised healthcare facilities, declining State expenditure on public health, and lack of awareness about preventive child healthcare.
Every year, 12 million girls are born -- 3 million of whom do not survive to see their 15th birthday. About one-third of these deaths occur in the first year of life and it is estimated that every sixth female death is directly due to gender discrimination.
A look at where our children stand today leaves much to be desired. We cannot even claim to have provided bare minimum food, education and protection for millions of children during all these years of freedom.
Makes one wonder how they can manage to smile at all.....
Stats and content sourced from the Web.
Comments
Post a Comment